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CONTENTS 

PREFACE   9 

THE  SOCIAL  MEANING  OF  THE  LORD'S 

PRAYER   15 

FOR  MORNING,  NOON,  AND  NIGHT     .    .  25 

Morning  Prayers   27 

Evening  Prayers   32 

Prayer  for  Sunday  Morning   37 

Prayer  for  Sunday  Evening   38 

Grace  before  Meat   39 

PRAISE  AND  THANKSGIVING   43 

For  the  Fatherhood  of  God   45 

For  this  World   47 

FOR  SOCIAL  GROUPS  AND  CLASSES.    .    .  49 

For  Children  who  Work   51 

For  the  Children  of  the  Street    ....  53 

For  Women  who  Toil   55 

For  Workingmen   57 

For  Immigrants   59 

For  Employers   61 

For  Men  in  Business   63 

For  Kings  and  Magnates   65 

For  Discoverers  and  Inventors  ....  67 

For  Artists  and  Musicians   69 

For  Judges   71 

For  Lawyers  and  Legislators     ....  73 

For  Public  Officers   75 

For  Doctors  and  Nurses   77 

For  Writers  and  Newspaper  Men  .    .    .  79 

For  Ministers   81 

For  Teachers   83 

For  all  Mothers   85 


For  all  True  Lovers   87 

For  the  Idle   89 

Morituri  Te  Salutant       ......  91 

PRAYERS  OF  WRATH   95 

Against  War   97 

Against  Alcoholism   99 

Against  the  Servants  of  Mammon    .    .    .  loi 

Against  Impurity   103 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  HUMANITY  ....  105 

For  the  Kingdom  of  God   107 

For  Those  who  Come  after  Us  .    .    .    .  109 

On  the  Harm  we  have  Done    .    .    .    .  iii 

For  the  Prophets  and  Pioneers      .    .    .  113 

For  Those  without  EInowledge   .    .    .    .  115 

For  a  Share  in  the  Work  of  Redemption  .  117 

For  the  Church   119 

For  our  City   121 

For  the  Cooperative  Commonwealth    .    .  124 

The  Author's  Prayer   126 


8] 


I 


PREFACE 

HE  new  social  purpose, 
which  has  laid  its  mas- 
terful grasp  on  modem 
life  and  thought,  is 
enlarging  and  trans- 
forming our  whole  con- 
ception of  the  meaning 
of  Christianity.  The 
Bible  and  all  past  history  speak  a  new  and 
living  language.  The  life  of  men  about  us 
stands  out  with  an  open-air  color  and 
vividness  which  it  never  had  in  the  dusky 
solemnity  of  the  older  theological  views 
about  humanity.  All  the  older  tasks  of 
church  life  have  taken  on  a  new  significance, 
and  vastly  larger  tasks  are  emerging  as  from 
the  mists  of  a  new  morning. 

Many  ideas  that  used  to  seem  fimda- 
mental  and  satisfying  seem  strangely  narrow 
and  trivial  in  this  greater  world  of  God. 
Some  of  the  old  religious  appeals  have 
utterly  lost  their  power  over  us.  But  there 
are  others,  unknown  to  our  fathers,  which 
kindle  religious  passions  of  wonderful  inten- 
sity and  purity.  The  wrongs  and  sufferings 
of  the  people  and  the  vision  of  a  righteous 


and  brotherly  social  life  awaken  an  almost 
painful  compassion  and  longing,  and  these 
feelings  are  more  essentially  Christian  than 
most  of  the  fears  and  desires  of  religion  in 
the  past.  Social  Christianity  is  adding  to  the 
variety  of  religious  experience,  and  is  creating 
a  new  type  of  Christian  man  who  bears  a 
striking  family  likeness  to  Jesus  of  Galilee. 

These  new  religious  emotions  ought  to 
find  conscious  and  social  expression.  But 
the  Church,  which  has  brought  down  so  rich 
an  equipment  from  the  past  for  the  culture  of 
individual  religion,  is  poverty-stricken  in  face 
of  this  new  need.  The  ordinary  church 
hymnal  rarely  contains  more  than  two  or 
three  hymns  in  which  the  triumphant  chords 
of  the  social  hope  are  struck.  Our  liturgies 
and  devotional  manuals  offer  very  little  that 
is  fit  to  enrich  and  purify  the  social  thoughts 
and  feelings. 

Even  men  who  have  absorbed  the  social 
ideals  are  apt  to  move  within  the  traditional 
round  in  public  prayer.  The  language  of 
prayer  always  clings  to  the  antique  for  the 
sake  of  dignity,  and  plain  reference  to 
modem  facts  and  contrivances  jars  the  ear. 
So  we  are  inclined  to  follow  the  broad 

[10] 


avenues  beaten  by  the  feet  of  many  genera- 
tions when  we  approach  God.  We  need  to 
blaze  new  paths  to  God  for  the  feet  of 
modem  men. 

I  offer  this  little  book  as  an  attempt  in  that 
direction.  So  far  as  I  know,  it  is  the  first  of 
its  kind,  and  it  is  likely  to  meet  the  sort  of 
objections  which  every  pioneering  venture  in 
religion  has  to  encoimter.  I  realize  keenly 
the  limitations  which  are  inevitable  when  one 
mind  is  to  furnish  a  vehicle  for  the  most 
intimate  spiritual  thoughts  of  others.  But 
whenever  a  great  movement  stirs  the  deeper 
passions  of  men,  a  common  soul  is  bom,  and 
all  who  feel  the  throb  of  the  new  age  have 
such  imity  of  thought  and  aim  and  feeling, 
that  the  utterance  of  one  man  may  in  a  meas- 
ure be  the  voice  of  all.  A  number  of  the 
prayers  in  this  collection  were  published 
month  by  month  in  the  American  Magazine. 
The  response  to  them  showed  that  there  is  a 
great  craving  for  a  religious  expression  of  the 
new  social  feeling. 

If  the  moral  demands  of  our  higher  social 
thought  could  find  adequate  expression  in 
prayer,  it  would  have  a  profoimd  influence 
on  the  social  movement.  Many  good  men 
[II] 


have  given  up  the  habit  of  praying,  partly 
through  philosophical  doubt,  partly  because 
they  feel  that  it  is  useless  or  even  harmful 
to  their  spiritual  nature.  Prayer  in  the  past, 
like  the  hiss  of  escaping  steam,  has  often 
dissipated  moral  energy.  But  prayer  before 
battle  is  another  thing.  That  has  been  the 
greatest  breeder  of  revolutionary  heroism  in 
history.  All  our  bravest  desires  stiffen  into 
fighting  temper  when  they  are  aflSbrmed 
before  God. 

Public  prayer,  too,  may  carry  farther  than 
we  know.  When  men  are  in  the  presence  of 
God,  the  best  that  is  in  them  has  a  breathing- 
space.  Then,  if  ever,  we  feel  the  vanity  and 
shamefulness  of  much  that  society  calls  proper 
and  necessary.  If  we  had  more  prayer  in 
common  on  the  sins  of  modem  society, 
there  would  be  more  social  repentance  and 
less  angry  resistance  to  the  demands  of 
justice  and  mercy. 

And  if  the  effect  of  our  prayers  goes  beyond 
our  own  personaUty;  if  there  is  a  center  of 
the  spiritual  imiverse  in  whom  our  spirits 
join  and  have  their  being;  and  if  the  mys- 
terious call  of  our  souls  somehow  reaches 
and  moves  God,  so  that  our  longings  come 

[12 


back  from  him  in  a  wave  of  divine  assent 
which  assures  their  ultimate  fulfilment  — 
then  it  may  mean  more  than  any  man 
knows  to  set  Christendom  praying  on  our 
social  problems. 

•    -   •        •        •        •       •  • 

I  am  indebted  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Momay 
Williams,  who  has  long  been  the  president 
of  the  New  York  Juvenile  Asylum,  for  the 
prayers  "For  the  Children  of  the  Street," 
and  "For  Judges."  A  number  of  my  friends 
have  aided  this  book  more  than  I  can  say 
by  their  advice  and  suggestions,  and  have 
made  it  in  a  measure  the  work  of  a  group. 
I  shall  welcome  suggestions  from  any  one 
which  would  improve  or  enrich  this  little 
collection  in  some  future  edition. 

J Permission  is  gladly  given  to  reprint  single 
prayers  in  newspapers,  church  programs, 
and  similar  publications,  provided  no  change 
is  made  in  the  wording  except  by  omission 
or  abbreviation.  I  should  be  glad  if  proper 
acknowledgment  were  made  in  every  case 
so  that  the  attention  of  others  may  be  called 
to  this  little  book  and  its  usefulness  increased. 

WALTER  RAUSCHENBUSCH. 

Rochester,  N.  Y. 

[13] 




^^[^J^l  INTRODUCTORY:  THE  SOCIAL  MEAN- 


INTRODUCTORY:  THE  SOCIAL  MEAN- 
ING  OF  THE  LORD'S  PRAYER 

HE  Lord's  Prayer  is 
recognized  as  the  purest 
expression  of  the  mind 
of  Jesus.  It  crystallizes 
his  thoughts.  It  con- 
veys the  atmosphere  of 
his  childlike  trust  in 
the  Father.  It  gives 
proof  of  the  transparent  clearness  and  peace 
of  his  soul. 

It  first  took  shape  as  a  protest  against  the 
wordy  flattery  with  which  men  tried  to 
wheedle  their  gods.  He  demanded  sim- 
plicity and  sincerity  in  all  expressions  of 
religion,  and  offered  this  as  an  example  of 
the  straightforwardness  with  which  men 
might  deal  with  their  Father.  Hence  the 
brevity  and  conciseness  of  it: 

"In  praying  use  not  vain  repetitions,  as  the  Gentiles 
do:  for  they  think  that  they  shall  be  heard  for  their 
much  speaking.  Be  not  therefore  like  unto  them: 
for  your  Father  knoweth  what  things  ye  have  need  of 
before  ye  ask  him.  After  this  manner  therefore  pray  ye : 

Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven, 
Hallowed  be  thy  name. 

[IS] 


I 

m 

rvr 

i 


Thy  kingdom  come. 

Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 
And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  also  have  forgiven 
our  debtors. 

And  bring  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us 
from  the  evil  one." 

Matthew  6  :  7-13.  (American  Revision.) 


The  Lord's  Prayer  is  so  familiar  to  us 
that  few  have  stopped  to  understand  it.  The 
general  tragedy  of  misunderstanding  which 
has  followed  Jesus  throughout  the  centuries 
has  frustrated  the  purpose  of  his  model  prayer 
also.  He  gave  it  to  stop  vain  repetitions,  and 
it  has  been  turned  into  a  contrivance  for 
incessant  repetition. 

The  churches  have  employed  it  for  their 
ecclesiastical  ritual.  Yet  it  is  not  ecclesias- 
tical. There  is  no  hint  in  it  of  the  Church, 
the  ministry,  the  doctrines  of  theology,  or  the 
sacraments  —  though  the  Latin  Vulgate  has 
turned  the  petition  for  the  daily  bread  into 
a  prayer  for  the  "super-substantial  bread" 
of  the  sacrament. 

It  has  also  been  used  for  the  devotions  of 
the  personal  religious  life.  It  is,  indeed, 
profoundly  personal.  But  its  deepest  signifi- 
[16] 


cance  for  the  individual  is  revealed  only 
when  he  dedicates  his  personality  to  the 
vaster  purposes  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
approaches  all  his  personal  problems  from 
that  point  ot  view.  Then  he  enters  both 
into  the  real  meaning  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  into  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  himself. 

The  Lord*s  Prayer  is  part  of  the  heritage  of 
social  Christianity  which  has  been  appro- 
priated by  men  who  have  had  little  sympa- 
thy with  its  social  spirit.  It  belongs  to  the 
equipment  of  the  soldiers  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  I  wish  to  claim  it  here  as  the  great 
charter  of  all  social  prayers. 

When  he  bade  us  say,  "Our  Father,'* 
Jesus  spoke  from  that  consciousness  of 
human  solidarity  which  was  a  matter  of 
course  in  all  his  thinking.  He  compels  us 
to  clasp  hands  in  spirit  with  all  our  brothers 
and  thus  to  approach  the  Father  together. 
This  rules  out  all  selfish  isolation  in  religion. 
Before  God  no  man  stands  alone.  Before 
the  All-seeing  he  is  surrounded  by  the  spirit- 
ual throng  of  all  to  whom  he  stands  related 
near  and  far,  all  whom  he  loves  or  hates, 
whom  he  serves  or  oppresses,  whom  he 
wrongs  or  saves.  We  are  one  with  our 
[17] 


fellow-men  in  all  our  needs.  We  are  one 
in  our  sin  and  our  salvation.  To  recognize 
that  oneness  is  the  first  step  toward  praying 
the  Lord's  Prayer  aright.  That  recognition 
is  also  the  foundation  of  social  Christianity. 

The  three  petitions  with  which  the  prayer 
begins  express  the  great  desire  which  was 
fimdamental  in  the  heart  and  mind  of  Jesus: 
"  Hallowed  be  thy  name.  Thy  kingdom 
come.  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so 
on  earth."  Together  they  express  his  yearn- 
ing faith  in  the  possibility  of  a  reign  of  God 
on  earth  in  which  his  name  shall  be  hallowed 
and  his  will  be  done.  They  look  forward 
to  the  ultimate  perfection  of  the  common  life 
of  humanity  on  this  earth,  and  pray  for  the 
divine  revolution  which  is  to  bring  that  about. 

There  is  no  request  here  that  we  be  saved 
from  earthliness  and  go  to  heaven  which  has 
been  the  great  object  of  churchly  religion. 
We  pray  here  that  heaven  may  be  duplicated 
on  earth  through  the  moral  and  spiritual 
transformation  of  humanity,  both  in  its  per- 
sonal imits  and  its  corporate  life.  No  form 
of  religion  has  ever  interpreted  this  prayer 
aright  which  did  not  have  a  loving  imder- 
standing  for  the  plain  daily  relations  of  men, 
[i81 


m 


and  a  living  faith  in  their  possible  spiritual 
nobility. 

And  no  man  has  outgrown  the  crude  sel- 
fishness of  religious  immaturity  who  has  not 
followed  Jesas  in  setting  this  desire  for  the 
social  salvation  of  mankind  ahead  of  all  per- 
sonal desires.  The  desire  for  the  Kingdom 
of  God  precedes  and  outranks  ever5rthing 
else  in  religion,  and  forms  the  tacit  presup- 
position of  all  our  wishes  for  ourselves.  In 
fact,  no  one  has  a  clear  right  to  ask  for 
bread  for  his  body  or  strength  for  his  soul, 
imless  he  has  identified  his  will  with  this 
all-embracing  purpose  of  God,  and  intends  to 
use  the  vitality  of  body  and  soul  in  the  attain- 
ment of  that  end. 

With  that  imderstanding  we  can  say  that 
the  remaining  petitions  deal  with  personal 
needs. 

Among  these  the  prayer  for  the  daily  bread 
takes  first  place.  Jesus  was  never  as  "spirit- 
ual" as  some  of  his  later  followers.  He 
never  forgot  or  belittled  the  elemental  need 
of  men  for  bread.  The  fundamental  place 
which  he  gives  to  this  petition  is  a  recognition 
of  the  economic  basis  of  life. 

But  he  lets  us  pray  only  for  the  bread  that 
[i9l 


is  needful,  and  for  that  only  when  it  becomes 
needful.  The  conception  of  what  is  needful 
will  expand  as  human  life  develops.  But 
this  prayer  can  never  be  used  to  cover  luxu- 
ries that  debilitate,  nor  accumulations  of 
property  that  can  never  be  used  but  are  sure 
to  curse  the  soul  of  the  holder  with  the 
diverse  diseases  of  mammonism. 

In  this  petition,  too,  Jesus  compels  us  to 
stand  together.  We  have  to  ask  in  common 
for  our  daily  bread.  We  sit  at  the  common 
table  in  God's  great  house,  and  the  supply 
of  each  depends  on  the  security  of  all.  The 
more  society  is  sociaHzed,  the  clearer  does 
that  fact  become,  and  the  more  just  and 
humane  its  organization  becomes,  the  more 
will  that  recognition  be  at  the  bottom  of  all 
our  institutions.  As  we  stand  thus  in  com- 
mon, looking  up  to  God  for  our  bread,  every 
one  of  us  ought  to  feel  the  sin  and  shame  of 
it  if  he  habitually  takes  more  than  his  fair 
share  and  leaves  others  hungry  that  he 
may  surfeit.  It  is  inhuman,  irreligious,  and 
indecent. 

The  remaining  petitions  deal  with  the 
spiritual  needs.  Looking  backward,  we  see 
that  our  lives  have  been  full  of  sin  and 

[20] 


failure,  and  we  realize  the  need  of  forgiveness. 
Looking  forward,  we  tremble  at  the  tempta- 
tions that  await  us  and  pray  for  deliverance 
from  evil. 

In  these  prayers  for  the  inner  life,  where 
the  soul  seems  to  confront  God  alone,  we 
should  expect  to  find  only  individualistic 
religion.  But  even  here  the  social  note 
sounds  clearly. 

This  prayer  will  not  permit  us  to  ask  for 
God*s  forgiveness  without  making  us  affirm 
that  we  have  forgiven  our  brothers  and  are 
on  a  basis  of  brotherly  love  with  all  men: 
"Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  also  have 
forgiven  our  debtors."  We  shall  have  to  be 
socially  right  if  we  want  to  be  religiously 
right.  Jesus  will  not  suffer  us  to  be  pious 
toward  God  and  merciless  toward  men. 

In  the  prayer,  "Lead  us  not  into  tempta- 
tion," we  feel  the  human  trembling  of  fear. 
Experience  has  taught  us  our  frailty.  Every 
man  can  see  certain  contingencies  just  a  step 
ahead  of  him  and  knows  that  his  moral  ca- 
pacity for  resistance  would  collapse  hopelessly 
if  he  were  placed  in  these  situations.  There- 
fore Jesus  gives  voice  to  our  inarticulate  plea 
to  God  not  to  bring  us  into  such  situations. 

[21] 


i 


m 


zS^il  the  I 


But  such  situations  are  created  largely  by 
the  social  life  about  us.  If  the  society  in 
which  we  move  is  rank  with  sexual  looseness, 
or  full  of  the  suggestiveness  and  solicitations 
of  alcoholism ;  if  our  business  life  is  such  that 
we  have  to  lie  and  cheat  and  be  cruel  in  order 
to  live  and  prosper;  if  our  political  organiza- 
tion offers  an  ambitious  man  the  alternative 
of  betrajdng  the  public  good  or  of  being 
thwarted  and  crippled  in  all  his  efforts,  then 
the  temptations  are  created  in  which  men  go 
under,  and  society  frustrates  the  prayer  we 
utter  to  God.  No  church  can  interpret  this 
petition  intelligently  which  closes  its  mind 
to  the  debasing  or  invigorating  influence  of 
the  spiritual  environment  furnished  by  society. 
No  man  can  utter  this  petition  without  con- 
scious or  unconscious  h3rpocrisy  who  is  help- 
ing to  create  the  temptations  in  which  others 
are  sure  to  fall. 

The  words  "  Deliver  us  from  the  evil  one  " 
have  in  them  the  ring  of  battle.  They  bring 
to  mind  the  incessant  grapple  between  God 
and  the  permanent  and  malignant  powers  of 
evil  in  humanity.  To  the  men  of  the  first 
century  that  meant  Satan  and  his  host  of  evil 
spirits  who  ruled  in  the  oppressive,  extor- 

[22] 


tionate,  and  idolatrous  powers  of  Rome. 
Today  the  original  spirit  of  that  prayer  will 
probably  be  best  understood  by  those  who  are 
pitted  against  the  terrible  powers  of  organized 
covetousness  and  institutionalized  oppression. 

Thus  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  the  great  prayer 
of  social  Christianity.  It  is  charged  with 
what  we  call  "  social  consciousness."  It 
assumes  the  social  solidarity  of  men  as  a 
matter  of  course.  It  recognizes  the  social 
basis  of  all  moral  and  religious  life  even  in 
the  most  intimate  personal  relations  to  God. 

It  is  not  the  property  of  those  whose  chief 
religious  aim  is  to  pass  through  an  evil  world 
in  safety,  leaving  the  world's  evil  unshaken. 
Its  dominating  thought  is  the  moral  and 
religious  transformation  of  mankind  in  all  its 
social  relations.  It  was  left  us  by  Jesus,  the 
great  initiator  of  the  Christian  revolution; 
and  it  is  the  rightful  property  of  those  who 
follow  his  banner  in  the  conquest  of  the 
world. 


w 


[23 


MORNING  PRAYERS 

GOD,  we  thank  thee  for 
the  sweet  refreshment 
of  sleep  and  for  the  glory 
and  vigor  of  the  new  day. 
As  we  set  our  faces  once 
more  toward  our  daily 
work,  we  pray  thee  for 
the  strength  sufficient 
for  our  tasks.  May  Christ's  spirit  of  duty  and 
service  ennoble  all  we  do.  Uphold  us  by  the 
consciousness  that  our  work  is  useful  work 
and  a  blessing  to  all.  If  there  has  been  any- 
thing in  our  work  harmful  to  others  and  dis- 
honorable to  ourselves,  reveal  it  to  our  inner 
eye  with  such  clearness  that  we  shall  hate  it 
and  put  it  away,  though  it  be  at  a  loss  to  our- 
selves. When  we  work  with  others,  help  us 
to  regard  them,  not  as  servants  to  our  will, 
but  as  brothers  equal  to  us  in  human  dignity, 
and  equally  worthy  of  their  full  reward.  May 
there  be  nothing  in  this  day's  work  of  which 
we  shall  be  ashamed  when  the  sim  has  set, 
nor  in  the  eventide  of  our  life  when  our  task 
is  done  and  we  go  to  our  long  home  to  meet 
thy  face. 


[27l 


UlSli 


CNCE  more  a  new  day  lies  before  us, 
our  Father.    As  we  go  out  among 
^  men  to  do  our  work,  touching  the 
hands  and  lives  of  our  fellows,  make  us,  we 
pray  thee,  friends  of  all  the  world.    Save  us 
1  from  blighting  the  fresh  flower  of  any  heart 
by  the  flare  of  sudden  anger  or  secret  hate. 
May  we  not  bruise  the  rightful  self-respect 
of  any  by  contempt  or  malice.   Help  us  to 
^  cheer  the  suffering  by  our  sympathy,  to 
freshen  the  drooping  by  our  hopefuhiess,  and 
I  to  strengthen  in  all  the  wholesome  sense  of  ~ 

worth  and  the  joy  of  life.    Save  us  from  the 
I  deadly  poison  of  class-pride.    Grant  that  we 
may  look  all  men  in  the  face  with  the  eyes  of 
a  brother.   If  any  one  needs  us,  make  us 
\  ready  to  yield  our  help  imgrudgingly,  unless 
f  higher  duties  claim  us,  and  may  we  rejoice 
that  we  have  it  in  us  to  be  helpful  to  our 
fellow-men. 

CGOD,  we  beseech  thee  to  save  us 
this  day  from  the  distractions  of 
vanity  and  the  false  lure  of  inordi- 
nate desires.    Grant  us  the  grace  of  a  quiet 
and  humble  mind,  and  may  we  learn  of  Jesus 
to  be  meek  and  lowly  of  heart.  May  we  not 
[28] 


join  the  throng  of  those  who  seek  after  things 
that  never  satisfy  and  who  draw  others  after 
them  in  the  fever  of  covetousness.  Save 
us  from  adding  our  influence  to  the  drag  of 
temptation.  If  the  fierce  tide  of  greed  beats 
against  the  breakwaters  of  our  soul,  may 
we  rest  at  peace  in  thy  higher  contentment. 
In  the  press  of  life  may  we  pass  from  duty 
to  duty  in  tranquillity  of  heart  and  spread 
thy  quietness  to  all  who  come  near. 

OTHOU  great  Companion  of  our  souls, 
do  thou  go  with  us  today  and  com- 
fort us  by  the  sense  of  thy  presence 
in  the  hours  of  spiritual  isolation.  Give  us 
a  single  eye  for  duty.  Guide  us  by  the  voice 
within.  May  we  take  heed  of  all  the  judg- 
ments of  men  and  gather  patiently  whatever 
truth  they  hold,  but  teach  us  still  to  test 
them  by  the  words  and  the  spirit  of  the 
one  who  alone  is  our  Master.  May  we 
not  be  so  wholly  of  one  mind  with  the  life 
that  now  is  that  the  world  can  fully  approve 
us,  but  may  we  speak  the  higher  truth  and 
live  the  purer  righteousness  which  thou  hast 
revealed  to  us.  If  men  speak  well  of  us, 
may  we  not  be  puffed  up;  if  they  slight  us, 
29 


1 


S 


may  we  not  be  cast  down;  remembering  the 
words  of  our  Master  who  bade  us  rejoice 
when  men  speak  evil  against  us  and  tremble 
if  all  speak  well,  that  so  we  may  have  evi- 
dence that  we  are  still  soldiers  of  God. 


O 


GOD,  we  who  are  bound  together 
in  the  tender  ties  of  love,  pray  thee 
for  a  day  of  imclouded  love.  May 
no  passing  irritation  rob  us  of  our  joy  in 
one  another.  Forgive  us  if  we  have  often 
been  keen  to  see  the  human  failings,  and 
slow  to  feel  the  preciousness  of  those  who 
are  still  the  dearest  comfort  of  our  life. 
May  there  be  no  sharp  words  that  wound 
and  scar,  and  no  rift  that  may  grow  into 
estrangement.  Suffer  us  not  to  grieve  those 
whom  thou  hast  sent  to  us  as  the  sweet 
ministers  of  love.  May  our  eyes  not  be  so 
holden  by  selfishness  that  we  know  thine 
angels  only  when  they  spread  their  wings  to 
return  to  thee. 


O 


LORD,  we  lift  our  hearts  to  thee  in 
the  pure  light  of  morning  and  pray 
that  they  be  kept  clean 
by  the  power  of  forgiving  love 

[30] 


[  of  evil  passion  L»^#J 
.  If  any  slight  riJ^ij 


or  wrong  still  rankles  in  our  souls,  help 
us  to  pluck  it  out  and  to  be  healed  of  thee 
Suffer  us  not  to  turn  in  anger  on  him  who  has 
wronged  us,  seeking  his  hurt,  lest  we  increase 
the  sorrows  of  the  world  and  taint  our  own 
souls  with  the  poisoned  sweetness  of  revenge. 
Grant  that  by  the  insight  of  love  we  may 
understand  our  brother  in  his  wrong,  and  if 
his  soul  is  sick,  to  bear  with  him  in  pity  and 
to  save  him  in  the  gentle  spirit  of  our  Master. 
Make  us  determined  to  love  even  at  cost  to 
our  pride,  that  so  we  may  be  soldiers  of  thy 
peace  on  earth. 


[31 


EVENING  PRAYERS 

LORD,  we  praise  thee 
for  our  sister,  the 
Night,  who  folds  all  the 
tired  folk  of  the  earth 
in  her  comfortable  robe 
of  darkness  and  gives 
them  sleep.  Release 
now  the  strained  limbs 
of  toil  and  smooth  the  brow  of  care.  Grant 
us  the  refreshing  draught  of  forgetfulness  that 
we  may  rise  in  the  morning  with  a  smile  on 
our  face.  Comfort  and  ease  those  who  toss 
wakeful  on  a  bed  of  pain,  or  whose  aching 
nerves  crave  sleep  aiid  find  it  not.  Save 
them  from  evil  or  despondent  thoughts  in  the 
long  darkness,  and  teach  them  so  to  lean  on 
thy  all-pervading  life  and  love,  that  their  souls 
may  grow  tranquil  and  their  bodies,  too,  may 
rest.  And  now  through  thee  we  send  Good 
Night  to  all  our  brothers  and  sisters  near  and 
far,  and  pray  for  peace  upon  all  the  earth. 

( k  UR  Father,  as  we  turn  to  the  comfort 
1  of  our  rest,  we  remember  those  who 
must  wake  that  we  may  sleep.  Bless 
the  guardians  of  peace  who  protect  us  against 

[32] 


men  of  evil  will,  the  watchers  who  save  us 
from  the  terrors  of  fire,  and  all  the  many 
who  carry  on  through  the  hours  of  the  night 
the  restless  commerce  of  men  on  sea  and 
land.  We  thank  thee  for  their  faithfulness 
and  sense  of  duty.  We  pray  for  thy  pardon 
if  our  covetousness  or  luxury  makes  their 
nightly  toil  necessary.  Grant  that  we  may 
realize  how  dependent  the  safety  of  our  loved 
ones  and  the  comforts  of  our  life  are  on  these 
our  brothers,  that  so  we  may  think  of  them 
with  love  and  gratitude  and  help  to  make 
their  burden  lighter. 

ACCEPT  the  work  of  this  day,  O  Lord, 
as  we  lay  it  at  thy  feet.  Thou 
knowest  its  imperfections,  and  we 
know.  Of  the  brave  purposes  of  the  morning 
only  a  few  have  foimd  their  fulfilment.  We 
bless  thee  that  thou  art  no  hard  taskmaster, 
watchmg  grimly  the  stint  of  work  we  bring, 
but  the  father  and  teacher  of  men  who 
rejoices  with  us  as  we  learn  to  work.  We 
have  naught  to  boast  before  thee,  but 
we  do  not  fear  thy  face.  Thou  knowest 
all  things  and  thou  art  love.  Accept  every 
right  intention  however  brokenly  fulfilled, 
[33] 


but  grant  that  ere  our  life  is  done  we  may 
under  thy  tuition  become  true  master  work- 
men, who  know  the  art  of  a  just  and  valiant 
Ufe. 

OUR  Master,  as  this  day  closes  and 
passes  from  our  control,  the  sense 
of  our  shortcomings  is  quick  within 
us  and  we  seek  thy  pardon.  But  since  we 
daily  crave  thy  mercy  on  our  weakness,  help 
us  now  to  show  mercy  to  those  who  have 
this  day  grieved  or  angered  us  and  to  forgive 
them  utterly.  Suffer  us  not  to  cherish  dark 
thoughts  of  resentment  or  revenge.  So  fill 
us  with  thy  abounding  love  and  peace  that  no 
ill-will  may  be  left  in  our  hearts  as  we  turn 
to  our  rest.  And  if  we  remember  that  any 
brother  justly  hath  aught  against  us  through 
this  day's  work,  fix  in  us  this  moment 
the  firm  resolve  to  make  good  the  wrong 
and  to  win  again  the  love  of  our  brother. 
Suffer  us  not  to  darken  thy  world  by  love- 
lessness,  but  give  us  the  power  of  the  sons 
of  God  to  bring  in  the  reign  of  love  among 
men. 


[34] 


OUR  Father,  we  thank  thee  for  all  the 
friendly  folk  who  have  come  into  our 
life  this  day,  gladdening  us  by  their 
human  kindness,  and  we  send  them  now  our 
parting  thoughts  of  love  through  thee.  We 
bless  thee  that  we  are  set  amidst  this  rich 
brotherhood  of  kindred  life  with  its  mys- 
terious power  to  quicken  and  uplift.  Make 
us  eager  to  pay  the  due  price  for  what  we 
get  by  putting  forth  our  own  life  in  whole- 
some good  will  and  by  bearing  cheerily  the 
troubles  that  go  with  all  joys.  Above  all  we 
thank  thee  for  those  who  share  our  higher 
life,  the  comrades  of  our  better  self,  in  whose 
companionship  we  break  the  mystic  bread 
of  life  and  feel  the  glow  of  thy  wonderful 
presence.  Into  thy  keeping  we  commit  our 
friends,  and  pray  that  we  may  never  lose  their 
love  by  losing  thee. 


GOD,  in  whom  is  neither  near  nor 
far,  through  thee  we  yearn  for  those 
who  belong  to  us  and  who  are  not 
here  with  us.  We  would  fain  be  near  them 
to  shield  them  from  harm  and  to  touch  them 
with  the  tenderness  of  love.  We  cast  our 
cares  for  them  on  thee  in  this  evening  hour, 
l35] 


and  pray  thee  to  do  better  for  them  than  we 
could  do.  May  no  distance  have  power  to 
wean  their  hearts  from  us  and  no  sloth  of 
ours  cause  us  to  lag  behind  the  even  pace  of 
growth.  In  due  time  restore  them  to  us  and 
gladden  our  souls  with  their  sweet  sight. 
We  remember  too  the  loved  ones  into  whose 
dear  eyes  we  cannot  look  again.  O  God,  in 
whom  are  both  the  living  and  the  dead,  thou 
art  still  their  life  and  Ught  as  thou  art  ours. 
Wherever  they  be,  lay  thy  hand  tenderly 
upon  them  and  grant  that  some  day  we  may 
meet  again  and  hear  once  more  their  broken 
words  of  love. 


m 


m 


[36] 


m 


PRAYER  FOR  SUNDAY  MORNING 

GOD,  we  rejoice  that 
today  no  burden  of 
work  will  be  upon  us 
and  that  our  body  and 
soul  are  free  to  rest. 
We  thank  thee  that  of 
old  this  day  was  hal- 
lowed by  thee  for  all 
who  toil,  and  that  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion the  weary  sons  of  men  have  found  it  a 
shelter  and  a  breathing  space.  We  pray  for 
thy  peace  on  all  our  brothers  and  sisters  who 
are  glad  to  cease  from  labor  and  to  enjoy  the 
comfort  of  their  home  and  the  companionship 
of  those  whom  they  love.  Forbid  that  the 
pressure  of  covetousness  or  thoughtless  love 
of  pleasure  rob  any  who  are  worn  of  their 
divine  right  of  rest.  Grant  us  wisdom  and 
self-control  that  our  pleasures  may  not  be 
folUes,  lest  our  leisure  drain  us  more  than 
our  work.  Teach  us  that  in  the  mystic  tmity 
of  our  nature  our  body  cannot  rest  tmless  our 
soul  has  repose,  that  so  we  may  walk  this 
day  in  thy  presence  in  tranquillity  of  spirit, 
taking  each  joy  as  thy  gift,  and  on  the  morrow 
return  to  our  labor  refreshed  and  content. 

[37] 


PRAYER  FOR  SUNDAY  EVENING 

LORD,  we  lift  our  souls 
to  thee  in  the  awe  of 
the  eventide.  Above 
the  tree-tops  hang  the 
heavens  in  their  glory, 
but  above  the  stars 
art  thou  and  the  eternal 
silence.  We  rejoice 
that  in  the  quiet  of  thy  day  of  rest  our  spirits 
have  been  attuned  to  the  melodies  of  thy 
beauty.  We  bless  thee  for  every  word  of 
solemn  truth  which  has  entered  our  hearts, 
for  every  touch  of  loving  hand  that  has  com- 
forted us,  for  every  opportunity  we  have  had 
to  speak  some  message  from  our  heart  to  the 
heart  of  our  brothers.  Forgive  us  if  any  hours 
have  been  wasted  on  profitless  things  that 
have  brought  us  no  satisfaction,  or  if  we  have 
dragged  our  dusty  cares  into  thy  sacred  day 
and  made  the  holy  common.  We  pray  for  thy 
blessing  on  all  who  have  come  near  to  us  this 
day,  on  all  who  have  brought  us  strength,  on 
all  who  are  sad  and  hungry  for  thee,  on  all  thy 
great  humanity  in  its  sin  and  beauty.  May  our 
last  waking  thought  be  a  benediction  for  our  fel- 
lows and  in  our  sleep  may  we  still  be  with  thee. 
38 


MEAT 
UR  Father,  thou  art  the 
final  source  of  all  our 
comforts  and  to  thee 
we  render  thanks  for 
this  food.    But  we  also 
\  {   remember  in  gratitude 
the    many    men  and 
women  whose  labor  was 
necessary  to  produce  it,  and  who  gathered 
it  from  the  land  and  afar  from  the  sea  for 
our  sustenance.     Grant  that  they  too  may 
enjoy  the  fruit  of  their  labor  without  want, 
and  may  be  boimd  up  with  us  in  a  fellow- 
ship of  thankful  hearts. 

OGOD,  we  thank  thee  for  the  abun- 
1  dance  of  our  blessings,  but  we  pray 
that  our  plenty  may  not  involve 
want  for  others.  Do  thou  satisfy  the  desire 
of  every  child  of  thine.  Grant  that  the 
strength  which  we  shall  draw  from  this  food 
may  be  put  forth  again  for  the  common  good, 
and  that  our  life  may  return  to  humanity 
a  full  equivalent  in  useful  work  for  the 
noiuishment  which  we  receive  from  the 
common  store. 

[39] 


W 


o 


UR  Father,  we  thaiik  thee  for  the  food 
of  our  body,  and  for  the  human  love 
which  is  the  food  of  our  hearts. 
Bless  our  family  circle,  and  make  this  meal 
a  sacrament  of  love  to  all  who  are  gathered 
at  this  table.  But  bless  thou  too  that  great 
family  of  humanity  of  which  we  are  but  a  lit- 
tle part.  Give  to  all  thy  children  their  daily 
bread,  and  let  our  family  not  enjoy  its  com- 
forts in  selfish  isolation. 

OLORD,  we  pray  for  thy  presence  at 
this  meal.  Hallow  all  our  joys,  and 
if  there  is  anything  wanton  or  imholy 
in  them,  open  our  eyes  that  we  may  see.  If 
we  have  ever  gained  our  bread  by  injustice, 
or  eaten  it  in  heartlessness,  cleanse  our  life 
and  give  us  a  spirit  of  humility  and  love,  that 
we  may  be  worthy  to  sit  at  the  common  table 
of  humanity  in  the  great  house  of  our  Father. 

BEFORE  A  PARTING 

GOD,  as  we  break  bread  once  more 
before  we  part,  we  turn  to  thee 
with  the  burden  of  our  desires.  Go 
with  him  who  leaves  us  and  hold  him  safe. 
May  he  feel  that  we  shall  not  forget  him 
40 


and  that  his  place  can  never  be  filled  till  he 
returns.  Make  this  meal  a  sacrament  of 
human  love  to  us,  and  may  our  hearts  divine 
the  thoughts  too  tender  to  be  spoken. 

FOR  A  FAMILY  REUNION 

LORD,  our  hearts  are  full  of  grati- 
tude and  praise,  for  after  the  long 
days  of  separation  thou  hast  brought 
us  together  again  to  look  into  the  dear  faces 
and  read  their  love  as  of  old.  As  the  happy 
memories  of  the  years  when  we  were  young 
together  rise  up  to  cheer  us,  may  we  feel 
anew  how  closely  our  lives  were  wrought 
into  one  another  in  their  early  making,  and 
what  a  treasure  we  have  had  in  our  home. 
Whatever  new  friendships  we  may  form, 
grant  that  the  old  loves  may  abide  to  the 
end  and  grow  ever  sweeter  with  the  ripening 
years. 

FOR  A  GUEST 

UR  Father,  we  rejoice  in  the  guest 
who  sits  at  meat  with  us,  for  our 
^    food  is  the  more  welcome  because 
he  shares  it,  and  our  home  the  dearer  be- 
cause it  shelters  him.     Grant  that  in  the 
[41] 


happy  exchange  of  thought  and  affection  we 
may  realize  anew  that  all  our  gladness  comes 
from  the  simple  fellowship  of  our  human 
kind,  and  that  we  are  rich  as  long  as  we  are 
loved. 

IN  TIME  OF  TROUBLE 

OLORD,  thou  knowest  that  we  are 
sore  stricken  and  heavy  of  heart. 
We  beseech  thee  to  uphold  us  by 
thy  comfort.  Thou  wert  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  and  in  all  these  years  thine  arm  has 
never  failed  us,  for  our  strength  has  ever 
been  as  our  days.  May  this  food  come  to 
us  as  an  assurance  of  thy  love  and  care  and 
a  promise  of  thy  sustenance  and  relief. 


m 


FOR  THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD 

THOU  great  Father  of 
us  all,  we  rejoice  that 
at  last  we  know  thee. 
All  our  soul  within  us 
is  glad  because  we  need 
no  longer  cringe  before 
thee  as  slaves  of  holy- 
fear,  seeking  to  appease 
thine  anger  by  sacrifice  and  self-infiicted 
pain,  but  may  come  like  little  children,  trust- 
ful and  happy,  to  the  God  of  love.  Thou  art 
the  only  true  father,  and  all  the  tender  beauty 
of  our  human  loves  is  the  reflected  radiance 
of  thy  loving  kindness,  like  the  moonlight 
from  the  sunlight,  and  testifies  to  the  eternal 
passion  that  kindled  it. 

Grant  us  growth  of  spiritual  vision,  that 
with  the  passing  years  we  may  enter  into 
the  fulness  of  this  our  faith.  Since  thou 
art  our  Father,  may  we  not  hide  our  sins 
from  thee,  but  overcome  them  by  the  stem 
comfort  of  thy  presence.  By  this  knowl- 
edge uphold  us  in  our  sorrows  and  make 
us  patient  even  amid  the  unsolved  mysteries 
of  the  years.  Reveal  to  us  the  larger  good- 
ness and  love  that  speak  through  the  im- 


1 


— 


bending  laws  of  thy  world.  Through  this 
faith  make  us  the  willing  equals  of  all  thy 
other  children. 

As  thou  art  ever  pouring  out  thy  life  in  sacri- 
ficial father-love,  may  we  accept  the  eternal 
law  of  the  cross  and  give  ourselves  to  thee  and 
to  all  men.  We  praise  thee  for  Jesus  Christ, 
whose  life  has  revealed  to  us  this  faith  and 
law,  and  we  rejoice  that  he  has  become  the 
first-bom  among  many  brethren.  Grant  that 
in  us,  too,  the  faith  in  thy  fatherhood  may 
shine  through  all  our  life  with  such  persuasive 
beauty  that  some  who  still  creep  in  the  dusk 
of  fear  may  stand  erect  as  free  sons  of  God, 
and  that  others  who  now  through  unbelief 
are  living  as  orphans  in  an  empty  world 
may  stretch  out  their  hands  to  the  great 
Father  of  their  spirits  and  find  thee  near. 


[46] 


J] 


GOD,  we  thank  thee 
for  this  universe,  our 
great  home ;  for  its  vast- 
ness  and  its  riches,  and 
for  the  manifoldness  of 
the  Ufe  which  teems 
upon  it  and  of  which  we 
are  part.    We  praise 
thee  for  the  arching  sky  and  the  blessed  winds, 
for  the  driving  clouds  and  the  constellations 
on  high.   We  praise  thee  for  the  salt  sea  and 
the  running  water,  for  the  everlasting  hills,  for 
the  trees,  and  for  the  grass  under  our  feet. 
We  thank  thee  for  our  senses  by  which  we  can 
see  the  splendor  of  the  morning,  and  hear  the 
jubilant  songs  of  love,  and  smell  the  breath 
of  the  springtime.    Grant  us,  we  pray  thee, 
a  heart  wide  open  to  all  this  joy  and  beauty, 
and  save  our  souls  from  being  so  steeped  in 
care  or  so  darkened  by  passion  that  we  pass 
heedless  and  imseeing  when  even  the  thorn- 
bush  by  the  wayside  is  aflame  with  the  glory 
of  God. 

Enlarge  within  us  the  sense  of  fellowship 
with  all  the  living  things,  our  little  brothers, 
to  whom  thou  hast  given  this  earth  as  their 


home  in  common  with  us.  We  remember 
with  shame  that  in  ihe  past  we  have  exer- 
cised the  high  dominion  of  man  with  ruthless 
cruelty,  so  that  the  voice  of  the  Earth,  which 
should  have  gone  up  to  thee  in  song,  has 
been  a  groan  of  travail.  May  we  realize  that 
they  live,  not  for  us  alone,  but  for  themselves 
and  for  thee,  and  that  they  love  the  sweet- 
ness of  life  even  as  we,  and  serve  thee  in 
their  place  better  than  we  in  ours. 

When  our  use  of  this  world  is  over  and  we 
make  room  for  others,  may  we  not  leave  any- 
thing ravished  by  our  greed  or  spoiled  by  our 
ignorance,  but  may  we  hand  on  our  common 
heritage  fairer  and  sweeter  through  our  use 
of  it,  imdiminished  in  fertility  and  joy,  that  so 
our  bodies  may  return  in  peace  to  the  great 
mother  who  nourished  them  and  our  spirits 
may  roimd  the  circle  of  a  perfect  life  in  thee. 


[48] 


FOR  CHILDREN  WHO  WORK 

THOU  great  Father  of 
the  weak,  lay  thy  hand 
tenderly  on  all  the  little 
children  on  earth  and 
bless  them.  Bless  our 
own  children,  who  are 
life  of  our  life,  and  who 
have  become  the  heart 
of  our  heart.  Bless  every  Uttle  child-friend 
that  has  leaned  against  our  knee  and  re- 
freshed our  soul  by  its  smiling  trustfulness. 
Be  good  to  all  children  who  long  in  vain  for 
human  love,  or  for  flowers  and  wate;r,  and 
the  sweet  breast  of  Nature,  But  bless  with 
a  sevenfold  blessing  the  yoimg  lives  whose 
slender  shoulders  are  already  bowed  be- 
neath the  yoke  of  toil,  and  whose  glad 
growth  is  being  stunted  forever.  Suffer  not 
their  little  bodies  to  be  utterly  sapped,  and 
their  minds  to  be  given  over  to  stupidity 
and  the  vices  of  an  empty  soul.  We  have 
all  jointly  deserved  the  millstone  of  thy  wrath 
for  making  these  little  ones  to  stumble  and 
fall.  Grant  all  employers  of  labor  stout 
hearts  to  refuse  enrichment  at  such  a  price. 
Grant  to  all  the  citizens  and  officers  of 
[SI] 


M 


states  which  now  permit  this  wrong  the 
grace  of  holy  anger.  Help  us  to  realize  that 
every  child  of  our  nation  is  in  very  truth 
our  child,  a  member  of  our  great  family.  By 
the  Holy  Child  that  nestled  in  Mary^s  bosom; 
by  the  memories  of  our  own  childhood  joys 
and  sorrows;  by  the  sacred  possibilities  that 
slimiber  in  every  child,  we  beseech  thee  to 
save  us  from  killing  the  sweetness  of  yoimg 
life  by  the  greed  of  gain. 


[52] 


mm. 


If 


FOR  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  STREET 
HEAVENLY  Father, 
whose  unveiled  face  the 
angels  of  little  children 
do  always  behold,  look 
with  love  and  pity,  we 
beseech  thee,  upon  the 
children  of  the  streets. 
Where  men,  in  their 
busy  and  careless  lives,  have  made  a  high- 
way, these  children  of  thine  have  made  a 
home  and  a  school,  and  are  learning  the  bad 
lessons  of  our  selfishness  and  our  folly.  Save 
them,  and  save  us,  O  Lord.  Save  them  from 
ignorance  and  brutality,  from  the  shameless- 
ness  of  lust,  the  hardness  of  greed,  and  the 
besotting  of  drink;  and  save  us  from  the 
greater  guilt  of  those  that  offend  thy  little  f 
ones,  and  from  the  h3^ocrisy  of  those  that  say 
they  see  and  see  not,  whose  sin  remaineth. 

Make  clear  to  those  of  older  years  the  in- 
alienable right  of  childhood  to  play,  and  give 
to  those  who  govern  our  cities  the  will  and 
ability  to  provide  the  places  for  play;  make 
clear  to  those  who  minister  to  the  appetite 
for  recreation  the  guilt  of  them  that  lead 
astray  thy  children;  and  make  clear  to  us 


all  that  the  great  school  of  life  is  not  encom- 
passed by  walls  and  that  its  teachers  are  all 
who  influence  their  younger  brethren  by 
companionship  and  example,  whether  for 
good  or  evil,  and  that  in  that  school  all  we 
are  teachers  and  as  we  teach  are  judged. 
For  all  false  teaching,  for  all  hindering  of 
thy  children,  pardon  us,  O  Lord,  and  suffer 
the  little  children  to  come  imto  thee,  for 
Jesus'  sake. 

MORNAY  WILLIAMS. 


m 


[54] 


FOR  WOMEN  WHO  TOIL 

GOD,  we  pray  thee  for 
our  sisters  who  are  leav- 
ing the  ancient  shelter 
of  the  home  to  earn 
their  wage  in  the  fac- 
tory and  the  store  amid 
the  press  of  modem 
life.  Save  them  from 
the  strain  of  tmremitting  toil  that  would  unfit 
them  for  the  holy  duties  of  home  and  mother- 
hood which  the  future  may  lay  upon  them. 
Give  them  grace  to  cherish  under  the  new  sur- 
roundings the  old  sweetness  and  gentleness 
of  womanhood,  and  in  the  rough  mingling  of 
life  to  keep  their  hearts  pure  and  their  lives 
untarnished.  Save  them  from  the  terrors 
of  utter  want.  Teach  them  to  stand  loyally 
by  their  sisters,  that  by  imited  action  they 
may  better  their  common  lot. 

If  it  must  be  so  that  our  women  toil  like 
men,  help  us  still  to  reverence  in  them  the 
mothers  of  the  future.  But  make  us  deter- 
mined to  shield  them  from  unequal  burdens, 
that  the  women  of  our  nation  be  not  drained 
of  strength  and  hope  for  the  enrichment  of  a 
few,  lest  our  homes  grow  poor  in  the  wifely 
[55] 


sweetness  and  motherly  love  which  have  be^ 
the  saving  strength  and  glory  of  our  country. 
To  such  as  yearn  for  the  love  and  sovereign 
freedom  of  their  own  home,  grant  in  due 
time  the  fulfilment  of  their  sweet  desires.  By 
Mary,  the  beloved,  who  bore  the  world's 
redemption  in  her  bosom;  by  the  memory  of 
our  own  dear  mothers  who  kissed  our  souls 
awake ;  by  the  little  daughters  who  must  soon 
go  out  into  that  world  which  we  are  now  fash- 
ioning for  others,  we  beseech  thee  that  we 
may  deal  aright  by  all  women. 


FOR  WORKINGMEN 

GOD,  thou  mightiest 
worker  of  the  imiverse, 
source  of  all  strength 
and  author  of  all  unity, 
we  pray  thee  for  our 
brothers,  the  industrial 
workers  of  the  nation. 
As  their  work  binds 
them  together  in  common  toil  and  danger, 
may  their  hearts  be  knit  together  in  a  strong 
sense  of  their  common  interests  and  destiny. 
Help  them  to  realize  that  the  injury  of  one 
is  the  concern  of  all,  and  that  the  welfare  of 
all  must  be  the  aim  of  every  one.  If  any  of 
them  is  tempted  to  sell  the  birthright  of  his 
class  for  a  mess  of  pottage  for  himself,  give 
him  a  wider  outlook  and  a  nobler  sympathy 
with  his  fellows.  Teach  them  to  keep  step 
in  a  steady  onward  march,  and  in  their  own 
way  to  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ  by  bearing  the 
common  burdens. 

Grant  the  organizations  of  labor  quiet 
patience  and  prudence  in  all  disputes,  and 
fairness  to  see  the  other  side.  Save  them 
from  malice  and  bitterness.  Save  them  from 
the  headlong  folly  which  ruins  a  fair  cause, 
57] 


and  give  them  wisdom  resolutely  to  put  aside 
the  two-edged  sword  of  violence  that  turns 
on  those  who  seize  it.  Raise  up  for  them 
stiU  more  leaders  of  able  mind  and  large 
heart,  and  give  them  grace  to  follow  the 
wiser  coimsel. 

When  they  strive  for  leisure  and  health 
and  a  better  wage,  do  thou  grant  their  cause 
success,  but  teach  them  not  to  waste  their 
gain  on  fleeting  passions,  but  to  use  it  in 
building  fairer  homes  and  a  nobler  manhood. 
Grant  all  classes  of  our  nation  a  larger  com- 
prehension for  the  aspirations  of  labor  and 
for  the  courage  and  worth  of  these  our 
brothers,  that  we  may  cheer  them  in  their 
struggles  and  understand  them  even  in  their 
sins.  And  may  the  upward  climb  of  Labor, 
its  defeats  and  its  victories,  in  the  farther 
reaches  bless  all  classes  of  our  nation,  and 
build  up  for  the  republic  of  the  future  a  great 
body  of  workers,  strong  of  limb,  clear  of 
mind,  fair  in  temper,  glad  to  labor,  conscious 
of  their  worth,  and  striving  together  for  the 
final  brotherhood  of  all  men. 


58] 


O 


FOR  IMMIGRANTS 

^  ^  *  THOU    great  Cham- 

pion of  the  outcast 
and  the  weak,  we 
remember  before  thee 
the  people  of  other 
nations  who  are  com- 
ing to  our  land,  seek- 
ing bread,  a  home, 
and  a  future.  May  we  look  with  thy  com- 
passion upon  those  who  have  been  drained 
and  stimted  by  the  poverty  and  oppression 
of  centuries,  and  whose  minds  have  been 
warped  by  superstition  or  seared  by  the 
dumb  agony  of  revolt.  We  bless  thee  for 
all  that  America  has  meant  to  the  alien 
folk  that  have  crossed  the  sea  in  the  past, 
and  for  all  the  patient  strength  and  God- 
fearing courage  with  which  they  have  en- 
riched our  nation.  We  rejoice  in  the  millions 
whose  life  has  expanded  in  the  wealth  and 
liberty  of  our  coimtry,  and  whose  children 
have  grown  to  fairer  stature  and  larger 
thoughts;  for  we,  too,  are  the  children  of 
immigrants,  who  came  with  anxious  hearts 
and  halting  feet  on  the  westward  path  of 
hope. 

[59] 


m 


We  beseech  thee  that  our  republic  may 
no  longer  fail  their  trust.  We  mourn  for 
the  dark  sins  of  past  and  present,  wherein 
men  who  are  held  in  honor  among  us  made 
spoil  of  the  ignorance  and  helplessness  of 
the  strangers  and  sent  them  to  an  early 
death.  In  a  nation  dedicated  to  liberty 
may  they  not  find  the  old  oppression  and  a 
fiercer  greed.  May  they  never  find  that  the 
arm  of  the  law  is  but  the  arm  of  the  strong. 
Help  our  whole  people  henceforth  to  keep 
in  leash  the  cunning  that  would  devour  the 
simple.  May  they  feel  here  the  pure  air 
of  freedom  and  face  the  morning  radiance 
of  a  joyous  hope. 

For  all  the  oppressed  afar  off  who  sigh 
for  liberty;  for  all  lovers  of  the  people  who 
strive  to  break  their  shackles;  for  all  who 
dare  to  believe  in  democracy  and  the  King- 
dom of  God,  make  thou  om*  great  common- 
wealth once  more  a  sure  beacon-light  of  hope 
and  a  guide  on  the  path  which  leads  to  the 
perfect  imion  of  law  and  liberty. 


[60] 


FOR  EMPLOYERS 

E  invoke  thy  grace 
and  wisdom,  O  Lord, 
upon  all  men  of  good 
will  who  employ  and 
control  the  labor  of 
men.  Amid  the  num- 
berless irritations  and 
anxieties  of  their  posi- 
tion, help  them  to  keep  a  quiet  and  patient 
temper,  and  to  rule  firmly  and  wisely,  without 
harshness  and  anger.  Since  they  hold  power 
over  the  bread,  the  safety,  and  the  hopes 
of  the  workers,  may  they  wield  their  powers 
justly  and  with  love,  as  older  brothers  and 
leaders  in  the  great  fellowship  of  labor. 
Suffer  not  the  heavenly  light  of  compassion 
for  the  weak  and  the  old  to  be  quenched  in 
their  hearts.  When  they  are  tempted  to 
follow  the  ruthless  ways  of  others,  and  to 
sacrifice  human  health  and  life  for  profit, 
do  thou  strengthen  their  will  in  the  hour  of 
need,  and  bring  to  naught  the  coimsels  of  the 
heartless.  Save  them  from  repressing  their 
workers  into  sullen  submission  and  helpless 
fear.  May  they  not  sin  against  the  Christ 
by  using  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men  as 
[6i] 


mere  tools  to  make  things,  forgetting  the 
human  hearts  and  longings  of  these  their 
brothers. 

Raise  up  among  us  employers  who  shall 
be  makers  of  men  as  well  as  of  goods.  Give 
us  masters  of  industry  who  will  use  their 
higher  ability  and  knowledge  in  lifting  the 
workers  to  increasing  independence  and 
vigor,  and  who  will  train  their  helpers  for 
the  larger  responsibilities  of  the  coming  age. 
Give  us  men  of  faith  who  will  see  beyond 
the  strife  of  the  present  and  catch  a  vision 
of  a  nobler  organization  of  our  work,  when 
all  will  still  follow  the  leadership  of  the 
ablest,  not  in  fear  but  by  the  glad  will  of 
all,  and  when  none  shall  be  master  and 
none  shall  be  man,  but  all  shall  stand  side 
by  side  in  a  strong  and  righteous  brother- 
hood of  work. 


m 


BUSINESS 

E  plead  with  thee, 
O  God,  for  our  broth- 
ers who  are  pressed  by 
the  cares  and  beset  by 
the  temptations  of  busi- 
ness life.  We  acknowl- 
edge before  thee  our 
common  guilt  for  the 
hardness  and  deceitfulness  of  industry  and 
trade  which  lead  us  all  into  temptation  and 
cause  even  the  righteous  to  slip  and  fall.  As 
long  as  man  is  set  against  man  in  a  struggle 
for  wealth,  help  the  men  in  business  to  make 
their  contest,  as  far  as  may  be,  a  test  of  excel- 
lence, by  which  even  the  defeated  may  be 
spurred  to  better  work.  If  any  man  is  pitted 
against  those  who  have  forgotten  fairness 
and  honesty,  help  him  to  put  his  trust  reso- 
lutely in  the  profitableness  of  sincerity  and 
uprightness,  and,  if  need  be,  to  accept  loss 
rather  than  follow  on  crooked  paths. 

Establish  in  unshaken  fidelity  all  who 
hold  in  trust  the  savings  of  others.  Since 
the  wealth  and  welfare  of  our  nation  are 
controlled  by  our  business  men,  cause  them 
to  realize  that  they  serve  not  themselves 
[63] 


u 


alone,  but  hold  high  public  functions,  and  do 
thou  save  them  from  betraying  the  inter- 
ests of  the  many  for  their  own  enrichment, 
lest  a  new  tyranny  grow  up  in  a  land  that 
is  dedicated  to  freedom.  Grant  them  far- 
sighted  patriotism  to  subordinate  their  profits 
to  the  public  weal,  and  a  steadfast  determina- 
tion to  transform  the  disorder  of  the  present 
into  the  nobler  and  freer  harmony  of  the 
future.  May  thy  Spirit,  O  God,  which  is 
ceaselessly  pleading  within  us,  prevail  at 
last  to  bring  our  business  life  under  Christ's 
law  of  service,  so  that  all  who  share  in  the 
processes  of  factory  and  trade  may  grow  up 
into  that  high  consciousness  of  a  divine 
calling  which  blesses  those  who  are  the 
free  servants  of  God  and  the  people  and 
who  consciously  devote  their  strength  to 
the  common  good. 


FOR  KINGS  AND  MAGNATES 

G^^^S^s^i^m^^^^  GOD,  we  worship  thee 
as  the  sole  lord  and 
sovereign  of  humanity, 
and  render  free  obedi- 
ence to  thee  because 
thy  laws  are  just  and 
thy  will  is  love.  We 
pray  thee  for  the  kings 
and  princes  of  the  nations  to  whom  power 
has  descended  from  the  past,  and  for  the 
lords  of  industry  and  trade  in  whose  hands 
the  wealth  and  power  of  our  modem  world 
have  gathered.  We  beseech  thee  to  save 
them  from  the  terrible  temptations  of  their 
position,  lest  they  follow  in  the  somber 
lineage  of  those  who  have  lorded  it  in  the 
past  and  have  used  the  people's  powers 
for  their  oppression.  Suffer  them  not  to 
waste  the  labor  of  the  many  for  their  own 
luxury,  or  to  use  the  precious  life-blood  of 
men  for  the  corruption  of  all.  Open  their 
hearts  to  the  saving  spirit  of  the  new  age 
of  freedom.  Mature  in  their  souls  the 
unshakeable  conviction  that  all  they  have  is 
but  held  in  trust  for  a  time  till  the  heir 
shall  claim  his  own. 

[65] 


And  when  the  people  seek  the  ampler 
freedom  and  self-direction  of  manhood,  may 
there  be  no  blindness  to  the  higher  will  and 
no  hardening  of  heart  by  those  who  have 
ruled.  Grant  them  wisdom  so  large-hearted 
that  they  may  recognize  the  culmination  of 
their  task  in  yielding  up  their  powers,  and 
may  use  their  gathered  knowledge  in  guiding 
the  liberation  of  the  people  in  order  and 
stability.  Save  them  from  the  fear  and  hate 
which  are  the  tyrants'  portion  and  from  the 
scorn  of  coming  generations.  Reveal  to  them 
that  all  the  higher  joys  come  only  by  impart- 
ing the  strength  of  our  life  to  those  who 
need  it,  and  that  a  man's  life  consisteth 
not  in  the  things  which  he  possesses,  but 
in  the  love  that  flows  out  from  him  and 
flows  back  to  him. 


66 


FOR 


DISCOVERERS 
E 


AND  INVENTORS 
praise  thee,  O 
Lord,  for  that  mys- 
terious spark  of  thy 
light  within  us,  the 
intellect  of  man,  for 
thou  hast  kindled  it  in 
the  beginning  and  by 
the  breath  of  thy  spirit 
flaming  power  in  our 


rejoice  in  the  men  of  genius  and 
intellectual  vision  who  discern  the  undis- 
covered applications  of  thy  laws  and  dig 
the  deeper  springs  through  which  the  hidden 
forces  of  thy  world  may  well  up  to  the  light 
of  day.  We  claim  them  as  our  own  in  thee, 
as  members  with  us  in  the  common  body 
of  humanity,  of  which  thou  art  the  all-per- 
vading life  and  inspirer.  Grant  them,  we 
pray  thee,  the  divine  humility  of  thine  elect 
souls,  to  realize  that  they  are  sent  of  thee 
as  brothers  and  helpers  of  men  and  that  the 
powers  within  them  are  but  part  of  the  vast 
equipment  of  humanity,  entrusted  to  them 
for  the  common  use.  May  they  bow  to  the 
law  of  Christ  and  live,  not  to  be  served,  but 
[67] 


mm 


11 


to  give  their  abilities  for  the  emancipation 
of  the  higher  life  of  man.  Save  them  from 
turning  thy  revelations  into  means  of  extor- 
tion and  from  checking  the  toilsome  march 
of  humanity  till  they  take  toll. 

But  to  us  who  benefit  by  their  work  do 
thou  grant  wisdom  and  justice  that  we  may 
not  suffer  the  fruit  of  their  toil  to  be  wrested 
from  them  by  selfish  cimning  or  the  pressure 
of  need,  but  may  assure  them  of  their  fair 
reward  and  of  the  meed  of  love  and  honor 
that  is  the  due  of  those  who  have  served 
humanity  well.  Gladden  us  by  the  glowing 
consciousness  of  the  one  life  that  thinks  and 
strives  in  us  all,  and  knit  us  together  into  a 
commonwealth  of  brothers  in  which  each 
shall  be  heir  of  all  things  and  the  free  ser- 
vant of  all  men. 


AND  MUSICIANS 

THOU  who  art  the 
all-pervading  glory  of 
the  world,  we  bless 
thee  for  the  power  of 
beauty  to  gladden  our 
hearts.  We  praise  thee 
that  even  the  least  of 
us  may  feel  a  thrill  of 
thy  creative  joy  when  we  give  form  and 
substance  to  our  thoughts  and,  beholding 
our  handiwork,  find  it  good  and  fair. 

We  praise  thee  for  our  brothers,  the 
masters  of  form  and  color  and  sound,  who 
have  power  to  unlock  for  us  the  vaster 
spaces  of  emotion  and  to  lead  us  by  their 
hand  into  the  reaches  of  nobler  passions. 
We  rejoice  in  their  gifts  and  pray  thee  to 
save  them  from  the  temptations  which  beset 
their  powers.  Save  them  from  the  discour- 
agements of  a  selfish  ambition  and  from  the 
vanity  that  feeds  on  cheap  applause,  from 
the  snare  of  the  senses  and  from  the  dark 
phantoms  that  haunt  the  listening  soul. 

Let  them  not  satisfy  their  hunger  for 
beauty  with  tricks  of  skill,  turning  the  art 
of  God  into  a  petty  craft  of  men.  Teach 
[60] 


them  that  they,  too,  are  but  servants  of 
humanity,  and  that  the  promise  of  their  gifts 
can  fulfil  itself  only  in  the  service  of  love. 
Give  them  faith  in  the  inspiring  power  of  a 
great  purpose  and  courage  to  follow  to  the 
end  the  visions  of  their  youth.  Kindle  in 
their  hearts  a  passionate  pity  for  the  joyless 
lives  of  the  people,  and  make  them  rejoice 
if  they  are  found  worthy  to  hold  the  cup  of 
beauty  to  lips  that  are  athirst.  Make  them 
the  reverent  interpreters  of  God  to  man, 
who  see  thy  face  and  hear  thy  voice  in  all 
things,  that  so  they  may  imveil  for  us  the 
beauties  of  nature  which  we  have  passed 
unseeing,  and  the  sadness  and  sweetness 
of  humanity  to  which  our  selfishness  has 
made  us  blind. 


70 


FOR  JUDGES 


GOD,  who  art  the 
author  and  giver  of  law, 
from  whom  alone  all 
just  designs  and  right- 
eous judgments  pro- 
ceed, give  unto  all 
those  who  frame,  in- 
terpret, or  administer 
human  law  the  counsel  of  thy  Holy  Spirit, 
that  they  may  know  themselves  thy  min- 
isters. Remove  from  them  all  pride  and 
vainglory  of  class,  all  prejudice  of  birth  and 
training,  all  narrowness  of  place  and  power, 
and  grant  them  to  know  that  only  in  loving 
sympathy  with  all  their  fellow-men  is  there 
the  possibility  of  clear  imderstanding  and 
righteous  decision.  Enable  them  so  to 
receive  the  precepts  and  examples  of  the 
past  that  they  build  upon  the  heritage  of 
the  fathers  a  just  and  adequate  edifice  of 
law  for  the  present. 

As  they  deduce  the  principles  which  under- 
lie ^e  customary  laws  of  men,  give  unto 
them  the  larger  vision  of  the  reign  of  law 
and  the  ordered  universe,  of  the  precedents 
of  nature  and  providence,  and  suffer  them 
[71 


not  to  forget  or  to  be  ignorant  of  those  in- 
evitable laws  of  thine  which  outlive  the 
lives  of  men.  O  Thou  who  hast  given  to 
man  the  will  to  conquer  the  earth,  the 
power  to  serve  his  fellows  and  the  heart 
to  love  thee,  may  the  rule  of  the  market-place 
never  be  suffered  to  obscure  thine  eternal 
justice,  but  grant  to  all  these  the  ministers 
of  human  justice  the  will  and  ability  to  pacify 
the  passions  and  adjust  the  disputes  of  men. 
Suffer  them  neither  to  be  swayed  by  the 
prejudices  nor  to  appeal  to  the  weaknesses 
of  others,  but  to  deal  fairly,  counsel  wisely, 
and  quit  themselves  manfully  in  all  matters ; 
to  be  the  servants  of  all  men,  but  the  hire- 
lings of  none,  and  so  to  hasten  the  coming 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  for  which 
we  pray. 

MORNAY  WILLIAMS. 


m 


FOR  LAWYERS  AND  LEGISLATORS 

I  LORD,  thou  art  the 
I  eternal  order  of  the 
^  xmiverse.  Our  human 
laws  at  best  are  but 
an  approximation  to 
thine  immutable  law, 
and  if  our  institutions 
are  to  stand,  they  must 
rest  on  justice,  for  only  justice  can  endure. 
We  beseech  thee  for  the  men  who  are  set  to 
make  and  interpret  the  laws  of  our  nation. 
Grant  to  all  lawyers  a  deep  consciousness 
that  they  are  called  of  God  to  see  justice 
done,  and  that  they  prostitute  a  holy  duty 
if  ever  they  connive  in  its  defeat.  Fill 
them  with  a  high  determination  to  make 
the  courts  of  our  land  a  strong  fortress  of 
defense  for  the  poor  and  weak,  and  never 
a  castle  of  oppression  for  the  hard  and  cim- 
ning. 

Save  them  from  surrendering  the  dear- 
bought  safeguards  of  the  people  for  which 
our  fathers  fought  and  suffered.  Revive  in 
them  the  spirit  of  the  great  liberators  of 
the  past  that  they  may  cleanse  our  law  of 
the  inherited  wrongs  that  still  cling  to  it. 

[73] 


Suffer  not  the  web  of  outgrown  precedents 
to  veil  their  moral  vision,  but  grant  them 
a  penetrating  eye  for  the  rights  and  wrongs 
of  today  and  a  quick  human  sympathy 
with  the  life  and  sufferings  of  the  people. 
May  they  not  perpetuate  the  tangles  of  the 
law  for  the  profit  of  their  profession.  Aid 
them  to  make  its  course  so  simple,  and  its 
justice  so  swift  and  sure,  that  the  humblest 
may  safely  trust  it  and  the  strongest  fear  it. 
Grant  them  wisdom  so  to  refashion  all  law 
that  it  may  become  the  true  expression  of 
the  fairer  ideals  of  freedom  and  brother- 
hood which  are  now  seeking  their  incarnation 
in  a  new  age.  Make  these  our  brothers  the 
wise  interpreters  of  thine  eternal  law,  the 
brave  spokesmen  of  thy  will,  and  in  reward 
bestow  upon  them  the  joy  of  conscious 
fellowship  with  thy  Christ  in  saving  men 
from  the  bondage  of  ancient  wrong. 


[74] 


FOR  PUBLIC  OFFICERS 


GOD,  thou  great  gov- 
ernor of  all  the  world, 
we  pray  thee  for  all 
who  hold  public  office 
and  power,  for  the  life, 
the  welfare,  and  the 
virtue  of  the  people  are 
in  their  hands  to  make 


or  to  mar.  We  remember  with  shame  that 
in  the  past  the  mighty  have  preyed  on  the 
labors  of  the  poor;  that  they  have  laid  nations 
in  the  dust  by  their  oppression,  and  have 
thwarted  the  love  and  the  prayers  of  thy 
servants.  We  bless  thee  that  the  new  spirit 
of  democracy  has  touched  even  the  kings  of 
the  earth.  We  rejoice  that  by  the  free  insti- 
tutions of  our  country  the  tyrannous  instincts 
of  the  strong  may  be  curbed  and  turned  to 
the  patient  service  of  the  commonwealth. 

Strengthen  the  sense  of  duty  in  our  political 
life.  Grant  that  the  servants  of  the  state 
may  feel  ever  more  deeply  that  any  diversion 
of  their  public  powers  for  private  ends  is 
a  betrayal  of  their  country.  Purge  our 
cities  and  states  and  nation  of  the  deep 
causes  of  corruption  which  have  so  often 


[75] 


made  sin  profitable  and  uprightness  hard. 
Bring  to  an  end  the  stale  days  of  party 
cunning.  Breathe  a  new  spirit  into  all  our 
nation.  Lift  us  from  the  dust  and  mire  of 
the  past  that  we  may  gird  ourselves  for  a 
new  day's  work.  Give  our  leaders  a  new 
vision  of  the  possible  future  of  our  coimtry 
and  set  their  hearts  on  fire  with  large  resolves. 
Raise  up  a  new  generation  of  public  men, 
who  will  have  the  faith  and  daring  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  in  their  hearts,  and  who 
will  enlist  for  life  in  a  holy  warfare  for  the 
freedom  and  rights  of  the  people. 


11 


FOR  DOCTORS  AND  NURSES 

E     praise     thee,  O 
Jl    ^^^»  friends, 
^ySJUS^Sl^ll    the  doctors  and  nurses, 

yT^^Arl!*!!  ^^^^       healing  of 

our  bodies.  We  bless 
thee  for  their  gentle- 
ness and  patience,  for 
their  knowledge  and 
skill.  We  remember  the  hours  of  our 
suffering  when  they  brought  relief,  and  the 
days  of  our  fear  and  anguish  at  the  bedside 
of  our  dear  ones  when  they  came  as  ministers 
of  God  to  save  the  life  thou  hadst  given. 
May  we  reward  their  fidelity  and  devotion 
by  our  loving  gratitude,  and  do  thou  uphold 
them  by  the  satisfaction  of  work  well  done. 

We  rejoice  in  the  tireless  daring  with  which 
some  are  now  tracking  the  great  slayers  of 
mankind  by  the  white  light  of  science.  Grant 
that  under  their  teaching  we  may  grapple 
with  the  sins  which  have  ever  dealt  death 
to  the  race,  and  that  we  may  so  order  the 
life  of  our  communities  that  none  may  be 
doomed  to  an  untimely  death  for  lack  of 
the  simple  gifts  which  thou  hast  given  in 
abimdance.  Make  thou  our  doctors  Hie 
[77 


prophets  and  soldiers  of  thy  kingdom,  which 
is  the  reign  of  cleanliness  and  self-restraint 
and  the  dominion  of  health  and  joyous  life. 

Strengthen  in  their  whole  profession  the 
consciousness  that  their  calling  is  holy  and 
that  they,  too,  are  disciples  of  the  saving 
Christ.  May  they  never  through  the  pressure 
of  need  or  ambition  surrender  the  sense  of 
a  divine  mission  and  become  hirelings  who 
serve  only  for  money.  Make  them  doubly 
faithful  in  the  service  of  the  poor  who  need 
their  help  most  sorely,  and  may  the  children 
of  the  workingman  be  as  precious  to  them 
as  the  child  of  the  rich.  Though  they  deal 
with  the  frail  body  of  man,  may  they  have 
an  abiding  sense  of  the  eternal  value  of 
the  life  residing  in  it,  that  by  the  call  of 
faith  and  hope  they  may  summon  to  their 
aid  the  mysterious  spirit  of  man  and  the 
powers  of  thy  all-pervading  life. 


[78] 


FOR  WRITERS  AND  NEWSPAPER  MEN 
THOU  great  source  of 
truth  and  knowledge, 
we  remember  before 
thee  all  whose  call- 
ing it  is  to  gather 
and  w^innow  the  facts 
for  informing  the  peo- 
ple. Inspire  them  with 
a  determined  love  for  honest  work  and 
a  stanch  hatred  for  the  making  of  lies, 
lest  the  judgments  of  our  nation  be  per- 
verted and  we  be  taught  to  call  light 
darkness  and  darkness  light.  Since  the 
sanity  and  wisdom  of  a  nation  are  in  their 
charge,  may  they  count  it  shame  to  set  the 
baser  passions  of  men  on  fire  for  the  sake 
of  gain.  May  they  never  suffer  themselves 
to  be  used  in  drugging  the  mind  of  the 
people  with  falsehood  and  prejudice. 

Grant  them  boldness  to  turn  the  unwel- 
come light  on  those  who  love  the  darkness 
because  their  deeds  are  evil.  Put  into  their 
hands  the  shining  sword  of  truth,  and  make 
them  worthy  successors  of  the  great  cham- 
pions of  the  people  who  held  truth  to  be  a 
holy  thing  by  which  nations  live  and  for 
[79] 


k 
If 


which  men  should  die.  Cause  them  to  real- 
ize that  they  have  a  public  fimction  in  the 
commonwealth,  and  that  their  cotmtry  may 
be  saved  by  their  courage  or  imdone  by 
their  cowardice  and  silence.  Grant  them 
the  heart  of  manhood  to  cast  their  mighty 
influence  with  the  forces  that  make  the 
people  strong  and  free,  and  if  they  suffer 
loss,  may  they  rejoice  in  that  as  proof  to 
their  own  souls  that  they  have  fought  a 
good  fight  and  have  been  servants  of  the 
higher  law. 


80 


FOR  MINISTERS 

JESUS,  we  thy  min- 
isters bow  before  thee 
to  confess  the  com- 
mon sins  of  our  call- 
ing. Thou  knowest  all 
things;  thou  knowest 
that  we  love  thee  and 
that  our  hearts'  desire 
is  to  serve  thee  in  faithfulness;  and  yet, 
like  Peter,  we  have  so  often  failed  thee 
in  the  hour  of  thy  need.  If  ever  we  have 
loved  our  own  leadership  and  power  when 
we  sought  to  lead  our  people  to  thee,  we 
pray  thee  to  forgive.  If  we  have  been 
engrossed  in  narrow  duties  and  little 
questions,  when  the  vast  needs  of  humanity 
called  aloud  for  prophetic  vision  and  apostolic 
sympathy,  we  pray  thee  to  forgive.  If  in 
our  loyalty  to  the  Church  of  the  past  we 
have  distrusted  thy  living  voice  and  have 
suffered  thee  to  pass  from  our  door  unheard, 
we  pray  thee  to  forgive.  If  ever  we  have 
been  more  concerned  for  the  strong  and  the 
rich  than  for  the  shepherdless  throngs  of 
whom  thy  s 


the  people 
pray  thee  to  forgive. 


grieved, 


8i] 


si 


O  Master,  amidst  our  failures  we  cast 
ourselves  upon  thee  in  humility  and  con- 
trition. We  need  new  light  and  a  new 
message.  We  need  the  ancient  spirit  of 
prophecy  and  the  leaping  fire  and  joy  of  a 
new  conviction,  and  thou  alone  canst  give  it. 
Inspire  the  ministry  of  thy  Church  with 
dauntless  courage  to  face  the  vast  needs  of 
the  future.  Free  us  from  all  entanglements 
that  have  hushed  our  voice  and  botmd  our 
action.  Grant  us  grace  to  look  upon  the 
veiled  sins  of  the  rich  and  the  coarse  vices 
of  the  poor  through  thine  eyes.  Give  us 
thine  inflexible  sternness  against  sin,  and 
thine  inexhaustible  compassion  for  the  frailty 
and  tragedy  of  those  who  do  the  sin.  Make 
us  faithful  shepherds  of  thy  flock,  true  seers 
of  God,  and  true  followers  of  Jesus. 


[82] 


m 


the  backward  and  afflicted.  Save  them  from 
physical  exhaustion,  from  loneliness  and  dis- 
couragement, from  the  numbness  of  routine, 
and  from  all  bitterness  of  heart. 

We  bless  thee  for  the  free  and  noble  spirit 
that  is  breathing  with  quickening  power  upon 
the  educational  life  of  our  day,  and  for  the 
men  and  women  of  large  mind  and  loving 
heart  who  have  made  that  spirit  our  common 
possession  by  their  teaching  and  example. 
But  grant  that  a  higher  obedience  and  self- 
restraint  may  grow  in  the  new  atmosphere 
of  freedom.  We  remember  with  gratitude 
to  thee  the  godly  teachers  of  our  own  youth 
who  won  our  hearts  to  higher  purposes  by 
the  sacred  contagion  of  their  life.  May  the 
strength  and  beauty  of  Christ-like  service 
still  be  plainly  wrought  in  the  lives  of  their 
successors,  that  our  children  may  not  want 
for  strong  models  of  devout  manhood  on 
whom  their  characters  can  be  molded. 

Do  thou  reward  thy  servants  with  a  glad 
sense  of  their  own  eternal  worth  as  teachers 
of  the  race,  and  in  the  heat  of  the  day  do  thou 
show  them  the  spring  by  the  wayside  that 
flows  from  the  eternal  silence  of  God  and  gives 


FOR  ALL  MOTHERS 

GOD,  we  offer  thee 
praise  and  benediction 
for  the  sweet  minis- 
tries of  motherhood  in 
human  life.  We  bless 
thee  for  our  own  dear 
mothers  who  built  up 
our  lives  by  theirs; 
^^oTiore^us  in  lravail  and  loved  us  the 
more  for  the  pain  we  gave;  who  nourished 
us  at  their  breast  and  hushed  us  to  sleep  in 
the  warm  security  of  their  arms.  We  thank 
thee  for  their  tireless  love,  for  their  voiceless 
prayers,  for  the  agony  with  which  they  fol- 
lowed us  through  our  sins  and  won  us  back, 
for  the  Christly  power  of  sacrifice  and  redemp- 
tion in  mother-love.  We  pray  thee  to  forgive 
us  if  in  thoughtless  selfishness  we  have  taken 
their  love  as  our  due  without  giving  the 
tenderness  which  they  craved  as  their  sole 
reward.  And  if  the  great  treasure  of  a 
mother's  life  is  still  spared  to  us,  may  we  do 
for  her  feebleness  what  she  did  for  ours. 

We  remember  before  thee  all  the  good 
women  who  are  now  bearing  the  pain  and 
weariness  of  maternity.  Grant  them  strength 
of  body  and  mind  for  their  new  tasks.  Widen 

85 


their  vision  that  they  may  see  themselves, 
not  as  the  mothers  of  one  child  alone,  but 
as  the  patriot  women  of  their  nation,  who 
alone  can  build  up  the  better  future  with 
fresh  and  purer  life.  Put  upon  the  girls  of 
our  people  the  awe  of  their  future  calling, 
that  they  may  preserve  their  bodies  and  minds 
in  purity  and  strength  for  the  holy  task  to 
which  the  future  may  summon  them. 

Bestow  thy  special  grace,  we  beseech 
thee,  on  all  women  who  have  the  yearnings 
of  motherhold,  but  whose  lives  are  barren 
of  its  joys.  If  any  form  of  human  sin 
has  robbed  them  of  the  prize  of  life,  grant 
them  righteous  anger  and  valiant  hearts  to 
fight  that  sin  on  behalf  of  those  who  come 
after  them.  Help  them  to  overcome  the  bit- 
terness of  disappointment,  and  to  find  an 
outlet  for  their  thwarted  mother-love  in  the 
wider  ministrations  to  all  the  lonely  and  un- 
mothered  hearts  in  thy  great  family  on  earth. 

As  the  protecting  love  of  motherhood 
wrought  blindly  in  the  earUest  upward 
climb  of  life,  may  it  now,  with  open  eyes 
and  strong  with  Christly  passion,  set  its 
tireless  strength  to  lift  humanity  from  the 
reign  of  brutal  force  and  to  foimd  the  larger 
family  of  men  on  the  blessed  might  of  love. 
[86 


m 


FOR  ALL  TRUE  LOVERS 

E  invoke  thy  gentlest 
blessings,  our  Father, 
on  all  true  lovers.  We 
praise  thee  for  the  great 
longing  tjiat  draws  the 
soul  of  man  and  maid 
together  and  bids  them 
leave  all  the  dear  bonds 
of  the  past  to  cleave  to  one  another. 
We  thank  thee  for  the  revealing  power  of 
love  which  divines  in  the  one  beloved  the 
mystic  beauty  and  glory  of  humanity.  We 
thank  thee  for  the  transfiguring  power  of 
love  which  ripens  and  ennobles  our  nature, 
calling  forth  the  hidden  stores  of  tenderness 
and  strength  and  overcoming  the  selfish- 
ness of  youth  by  the  passion  of  self-sur- 
render. 

We  pray  thee  to  make  their  love  strong, 
holy,  and  deathless,  that  no  misunderstand- 
ings may  fray  the  bond,  and  no  gray  disen- 
chantment of  the  years  may  have  power  to 
quench  the  heavenly  light  that  now  glows  in 
them.  May  they  early  gain  wisdom  to  dis- 
cern the  true  values  of  life,  and  may  no 
tyranny  of  fashion  and  no  glamour  of  cheaper 

[87] 


m 


"9- 


m 


joys  filch  from  them  the  wholesome  peace 
and  inward  satisfaction  which  only  loyal  love 
can  give. 

Grant  them  with  sober  eyes  to  look  beyond 
these  sweet  days  of  friendship  to  the  genera- 
tions yet  to  come,  and  to  realize  that  the  home 
for  which  they  long  will  be  part  of  the  sacred 
tissue  of  the  body  of  humanity  in  which 
thou  art  to  dwell,  that  so  they  may  reverence 
themselves  and  drink  the  cup  of  joy  with 
awe. 


[88] 


FOR  THE  IDLE 

GOD,  we  remember 
with  pain  and  pity 
the  thousands  of  our 
brothers  and  sisters 
who  seek  honest  work 
and  seek  in  vain.  For 
though  the  unsatisfied 
wants  of  men  are  many, 
and  though  our  land  is  wide  and  calls  for 
labor,  yet  these  thy  sons  and  daughters 
have  no  place  to  labor,  and  are  turned 
away  in  humiliation  and  despair  when  they 
seek  it.  O  righteous  God,  we  acknowledge 
our  common  guilt  for  the  disorder  of  our 
industry  which  thrusts  even  willing  workers 
into  the  degradation  of  idleness  and  want, 
and  teaches  some  to  love  the  sloth  which 
once  they  feared  and  hated. 

We  remember  also  with  sorrow  and 
compassion  the  idle  rich,  who  have  vigor  of 
body  and  mind  and  yet  produce  no  useful 
thing.  Forgive  them  for  loading  the  burden 
of  their  support  on  the  bent  shoulders  of 
the  working  world.  Forgive  them  for  wasting 
in  refined  excess  what  would  feed  the  pale 
children  of  the  poor.  Forgive  them  for 
[80] 


setting  their  poisoned  splendor  before  the 
thirsty  hearts  of  the  young,  luring  them  to 
theft  or  shame  by  the  lust  of  eye  and  flesh. 
Forgive  them  for  taking  pride  in  their  work- 
less  lives  and  despising  those  by  whose 
toil  they  live.  Forgive  them  for  appeasing 
their  better  self  by  pretended  duties  and 
injurious  charities.  We  beseech  thee  to 
awaken  them  by  the  new  voice  of  thy  Spirit 
that  they  may  look  up  into  the  stem  eyes 
of  thy  Christ  and  may  be  smitten  with  the 
blessed  pangs  of  repentance.  Grant  them 
strength  of  soul  to  rise  from  their  silken  shame 
and  to  give  their  brothers  a  just  return  of 
labor  for  the  bread  they  eat.  And  to  our 
whole  nation  do  thou  grant  wisdom  to  create 
a  world  in  which  none  shall  be  forced  to  idle 
in  want,  and  none  shall  be  able  to  idle  in 
luxury,  but  in  which  all  shall  know  the 
health  of  wholesome  work  and  the  sweetness 
of  well-earned  rest. 


11 


Ipo] 


MORITURI  TE  SALUTANT 

THOU  Eternal  One,  we 
who  are  doomed  to 
die  lift  up  our  souls 
to  thee  for  strength, 
for  Death  has  passed 
us  in  the  throng  of 
men  and  touched  us, 
and  we  know  that  at 
some  turn  of  our  pathway  he  stands  waiting 
to  take  us  by  the  hand  and  lead  us  —  we 
know  not  whither.  We  praise  thee  that  to 
us  he  is  no  more  an  enemy  but  thy  great 
angel  and  our  friend,  who  alone  can  open 
for  some  of  us  the  prison-house  of  pain  and 
misery  and  set  our  feet  in  the  roomy  spaces 
of  a  larger  life.  Yet  we  are  but  children, 
afraid  of  the  dark  and  the  unknown,  and  we 
dread  the  parting  from  the  life  that  is  so 
sweet  and  from  the  loved  ones  who  are  so 
dear. 

Grant  us  of  thy  mercy  a  valiant  heart, 
that  we  may  tread  the  road  with  head  uplifted 
and  a  smiling  face.  May  we  do  our  work 
to  the  last  with  a  wholesome  joy,  and  love 
our  loves  with  an  added  tenderness  because 
the  days  of  love  are  short.  On  thee  we 
[91] 


cast  the  heaviest  burden  that  numbs  our 
soul,  the  gnawing  fear  for  those  we  love, 
whom  we  must  leave  imsheltered  in  a  self- 
ish world.  We  trust  in  thee,  for  through 
all  our  years  thou  hast  been  our  stay.  O 
thou  Father  of  the  fatherless,  put  thy  arm 
about  our  Uttle  ones!  And  ere  we  go,  we 
pray  that  the  days  may  come  when  the  djring 
may  die  imafraid,  because  men  have  ceased 
to  prey  on  the  weak,  and  the  great  family  of 
the  nation  enfolds  all  with  its  strength  and 
care. 

We  thank  thee  that  we  have  tasted  the 
rich  life  of  humanity.  We  bless  thee  for 
every  hour  of  life,  for  all  our  share  in  the 
joys  and  strivings  of  our  brothers,  for  the 
wisdom  gained  which  will  be  part  of  us 
forever.  If  soon  we  must  go,  yet  through 
thee  we  have  Uved  and  our  life  flows  on  in 
the  race.  By  thy  grace  we  too  have  helped 
to  shape  the  future  and  bring  in  the  better 
day. 

If  our  spirit  droops  in  loneliness,  uphold 
us  by  thy  companionship.  When  all  the 
voices  of  love  grow  faint  and  drift  away, 
thy  everlasting  arms  will  still  be  there. 
Thou  art  the  father  of  our  spirits;  from  thee 
[92] 


we  have  come;  to  thee  we  go.  We  rejoice 
that  in  the  hours  of  our  purer  vision,  when 
the  pulse-throb  of  thine  eternity  is  strong 
within  us,  we  know  that  no  pang  of  mortality 
can  reach  our  imconquerable  soul,  and  that 
for  those  who  abide  in  thee  death  is  but 
the  gateway  to  life  eternal.  Into  thy  hands 
we  commend  our  spirit. 


93 


r 


LORD,  since  first  the 
blood  of  Abel  cried  to 
thee  from  the  ground 
that  drank  it,  this  earth 
of  thine  has  been  de- 
filed with  the  blood  of 
man  shed  by  his  broth- 
er's hand,  and  the  cen- 
turies sob  with  the  ceaseless  horror  of 
war.  Ever  the  pride  of  kings  and  the  cov- 
etousness  of  the  strong  has  driven  peace- 
ful nations  to  slaughter.  Ever  the  songs 
of  the  past  and  the  pomp  of  armies  have 
been  used  to  inflame  the  passions  of  the 
people.  Our  spirit  cries  out  to  thee  in 
revolt  against  it,  and  we  know  that  our 
righteous  anger  is  answered  by  thy  holy 
wrath. 

Break  thou  the  spell  of  the  enchantments 
that  make  the  nations  drunk  with  the  lust 
of  battle  and  draw  them  on  as  willing  tools 
of  death.  Grant  us  a  quiet  and  steadfast 
mind  when  our  own  nation  clamors  for 
vengeance  or  aggression.  Strengthen  our 
sense  of  justice  and  our  regard  for  the  equal 
worth  of  other  peoples  and  races.  Grant 
[97 


to  the  rulers  of  nations  faith  in  the  possi- 
bility of  peace  through  justice,  and  grant 
to  the  common  people  a  new  and  stem 
enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  peace.  Bless 
our  soldiers  and  sailors  for  their  swift  obe- 
dience and  their  willingness  to  answer  to 
the  call  of  duty,  but  inspire  them  none 
the  less  with  a  hatred  of  war,  and  may  they 
never  for  love  of  private  glory  or  advance- 
ment provoke  its  coming.  May  our  yoimg 
men  still  rejoice  to  die  for  their  country 
with  the  valor  of  their  fathers,  but  teach  our 
age  nobler  methods  of  matching  our  strength 
and  more  effective  ways  of  giving  our  life 
for  the  flag. 

O  thou  strong  Father  of  all  nations,  draw 
all  thy  great  family  together  with  an  increas- 
ing sense  of  our  common  blood  and  destiny, 
that  peace  may  come  on  earth  at  last,  and 
thy  sun  may  shed  its  light  rejoicing  on  a 
holy  brotherhood  of  peoples. 


98 


iifi»'fi'ii~r 


AGAINST  ALCOHOLISM 

LORD,  we  praise  thy 
holy  name,  for  thou 
hast  made  bare  thine 
arm  in  the  sight  of 
all  nations  and  done 
wonders.  But  still  we 
cry  to  thee  in  the  weary 
struggle  of  our  people 
against  the  power  of  drink.  Remember, 
Lord,  the  strong  men  who  were  led  astray 
and  blighted  in  the  flower  of  their  youth. 
Remember  the  aged  who  have  brought  their 
gray  hairs  to  a  dishonored  grave.  Remem- 
ber the  homes  that  have  been  made  desolate 
of  joy,  the  wifely  love  that  has  been  out- 
raged in  its  sanctuary,  the  little  children 
who  have  learned  to  despise  where  once  they 
loved.  Remember,  O  thou  great  avenger  of 
sin,  and  make  this  nation  to  remember. 

May  those  who  now  entrap  the  feet  of  the 
weak  and  make  their  living  by  the  degrada- 
tion of  men,  thrust  away  their  shameful 
gains  and  stand  clear.  But  if  their  conscience 
is  silenced  by  profit,  do  thou  grant  thy  people 
the  indomitable  strength  of  faith  to  make 
an  end  of  it.  May  all  the  great  churches  of 
[99] 


mm 


our  land  shake  off  those  who  seek  the  shelter 
of  religion  for  that  which  damns,  and  stand 
with  level  front  against  their  common  foe. 
May  all  who  still  soothe  their  souls  with 
half-truths,  saying  Peace,  peace,"  where 
there  can  be  no  peace,  learn  to  see  through 
thy  stem  eyes  and  come  to  the  help  of 
Jehovah  against  the  mighty.  Help  us  to 
cast  down  the  men  in  high  places  who  use 
the  people's  powers  to  beat  back  the  people's 
hands  from  the  wrong  they  fain  would  crush. 

O  God,  bring  nigh  the  day  when  all  our 
men  shall  face  their  daily  task  with  minds 
undrugged  and  with  tempered  passions; 
when  the  imseemly  mirth  of  drink  shall  seem 
a  shame  to  all  who  hear  and  see;  when  the 
trade  that  debauches  men  shall  be  loathed 
like  the  trade  that  debauches  women;  and 
when  all  this  black  remnant  of  savagery  shall 
haunt  the  memory  of  a  new  generation  but 
as  an  evil  dream  of  the  night.  For  this 
accept  our  vows,  O  Lord,  and  grant  thine 
aid. 


AGAINST  THE  SERVANTS  OF  MAMMON 
E  cry  to  thee  for  jus- 
tice, O  Lord,  for  our 
soul  is  weary  with  the 
iniquity  of  greed.  Be- 
hold the  servants  of 
Mammon,  who  defy 
thee  and  drain  their 
fellow-men  for  gain ; 
who  grind  down  the  strength  of  the  work- 
ers by  merciless  toil  and  fling  them 
aside  when  they  are  mangled  and  worn; 
who  rackrent  the  poor  and  make  dear  the 
space  and  air  which  thou  hast  made  free; 
who  paralyze  the  hand  of  justice  by  corruption 
and  blind  the  eyes  of  the  people  by  lies; 
who  nullify  by  their  craft  the  merciful  laws 
which  nobler  men  have  devised  for  the 
protection  of  the  weak;  who  have  made  us 
ashamed  of  our  dear  country  by  their  defile- 
ments and  have  turned  our  holy  freedom  into 
a  hollow  name;  who  have  brought  upon 
thy  Church  the  contempt  of  men  and  have 
cloaked  their  extortion  with  the  Gospel  of 
thy  Christ. 

For  the  oppression  of  the  poor  and  the 
sighing  of  the  needy  now  do  thou  arise, 
[loi] 


m 


O  Lord ;  for  because  thou  art  love,  and  tender  ll^^l^ 
as  a  mother  to  the  weak,  therefore  thou  art  "^O^ 
the  great  hater  of  iniquity  and  thy  doom  is 
upon  those  who  grow  rich  on  the  poverty  of 
the  people. 

O  God,  we  are  afraid,  for  the  thunder- 
cloud of  thy  wrath  is  even  now  black  above 
us.  In  the  ruins  of  dead  empires  we  have 
read  how  thou  hast  trodden  the  wine-press 
of  thine  anger  when  the  measure  of  their 
sin  was  full.  We  are  sick  at  heart  when  we 
remember  that  by  the  greed  of  those  who 
enslaved  a  wearier  race  that  curse  was 
fastened  upon  us  all  which  still  lies  black  and 
hopeless  across  our  land,  though  the  blood 
of  a  nation  was  spilled  to  atone.  Save  our 
people  from  being  dragged  down  into  vaster 
guilt  and  woe  by  men  who  have  no  vision  and 
know  no  law  except  their  lust.  Shake  their 
souls  with  awe  of  thee  that  they  may  cease. 
Help  us  with  clean  hands  to  tear  the  web 
which  they  have  woven  about  us  and  to 
turn  our  people  back  to  thy  law,  lest  the  mark 
of  the  beast  stand  out  on  the  right  hand  and 
forehead  of  our  nation  and  our  feet  be  set 
on  the  downward  path  of  darkness  from  which 
there  is  no  return  forever. 

[  102 


MA 


lii^^^  THOU  whose  light  is 

about  me  and  within 
me  and  to  whom  all 
things  are  present, 
help  me  this  day  to 
keep  my  life  pure  in 
thy  sight.  Suffer  me 
not  by  any  lawless  act 
of  mine  to  befoul  any  innocent  life  or  add  to 
the  shame  and  hopelessness  of  any  erring 
one  that  struggles  faintly  against  sin.  Grant 
me  a  steadfast  scorn  for  pleasure  bought  by 
human  degradation.  May  no  reckless  word 
or  wanton  look  from  me  kindle  the  slow 
fires  of  wayward  passion  that  will  char  and 
consume  the  divine  beauties  of  any  soul. 
Give  me  grace  to  watch  over  the  imaginations 
of  my  heart,  lest  in  the  unknown  hour  of 
my  weakness  my  secret  thoughts  leap  into 
action  and  my  honor  be  turned  into  shame. 
If  my  friends  trust  me  with  their  loved  ones, 
save  me  from  betraying  their  trust  and  from 
slaying  the  peace  of  a  home.  If  any  dear 
heart  has  staked  its  life  and  hopes  on  my 
love  and  loyalty,  I  beseech  thee  that  its  joy 
and  strength  may  never  wither  through  my 


103 


i 


forgetfulness  or  guilt.  O  God,  make  me 
pure  and  a  helper  to  the  weak.  Grant  that 
even  the  sms  of  my  past  may  yield  me  added 
wisdom  and  tenderness  to  help  those  who 
are  tempted. 

Save  our  nation  from  the  corruption  that 
breeds  corruption.  Save  our  innocent  sons 
and  daughters  from  the  secret  curse  that  re- 
quites the  touch  of  love  with  lingering  death. 
O  Jesus,  thou  master  of  all  who  are  both 
strong  and  pure,  take  our  weak  and  passion- 
ate hearts  under  thy  control,  that  when  the 
dusk  settles  upon  our  life,  we  may  go  to  our 
long  rest  with  no  pang  of  shame,  and  may 
enter  into  the  blessedness  of  seeing  God, 
which  thou  hast  promised  only  to  the  pure 
in  heart. 


[  104] 


m 


o 


FOR  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD 

CHRIST,  thou  hast  bid- 
den us  pray  for  the 
coming  of  thy  Father's 
kingdom,  in  which  his 
righteous  will  shall  be 
done  on  earth.  We  have 
treasured  thy  words, 
but  we  have  forgotten 
their  meaning,  and  thy  great  hope  has  grown 
dim  in  thy  Church.  We  bless  thee  for  the 
inspired  souls  of  all  ages  who  saw  afar  the 
shining  city  of  God,  and  by  faith  left  the  profit 
of  the  present  to  follow  their  vision.  We 
rejoice  that  to-day  the  hope  of  these  lonely 
hearts  is  becoming  the  clear  faith  of  millions. 
Help  us,  O  Lord,  in  the  courage  of  faith  to 
seize  what  has  now  come  so  near,  that  the 
glad  day  of  God  may  dawn  at  last.  As  we 
have  mastered  Nature  that  we  might  gain 
wealth,  help  us  now  to  master  the  social 
relations  of  mankind  that  we  may  gain  jus- 
tice and  a  world  of  brothers.  For  what  shall 
it  profit  our  nation  if  it  gain  numbers  and 
riches,  and  lose  the  sense  of  the  living  God 
and  the  joy  of  human  brotherhood? 
Make  us  determined  to  live  by  truth  and 
[107] 


not  by  lies,  to  found  our  common  life  on 
the  eternal  foimdations  of  righteousness 
and  love,  and  no  longer  to  prop  the  tottering 
house  of  wrong  by  legalized  cruelty  and 
force.  Help  us  to  make  the  welfare  of  all 
the  supreme  law  of  our  land,  that  so  our 
commonwealth  may  be  built  strong  and 
secure  on  the  love  of  all  its  citizens.  Cast 
down  the  throne  of  Mammon  who  ever  grinds 
the  life  of  men,  and  set  up  thy  throne,  O 
Christ,  for  thou  didst  die  that  men  might 
live.  Show  thy  erring  children  at  last  the 
way  from  the  City  of  Destruction  to  the  City  of 
Love,  and  fulfil  the  longings  of  the  prophets 
of  humanity.  Our  Master,  once  more  we 
make  thy  faith  our  prayer;  *'Thy  kingdom 
come!  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth!  " 


FOR  THOSE  WHO  COME  AFTER  US 
GOD,  we    pray  thee 

^^iJFtL^^t^^k^^  those   who  come 

after  us,  for  our  chil- 
KJV  f\  dren,    and    the  chil- 

^^tl  ^^^^  friends, 
/^c3ir'y'^E2^f  and  for  all  the  young 
V^Mlm^^MMd  lives  that  are  march- 
mg  up  from  the  gates 
of  birth,  pure  and  eager,  with  the  morning 
sunshine  on  their  faces.  We  remember 
with  a  pang  that  these  will  live  in  the  world 
we  are  making  for  them.  We  are  wasting  I 
the  resources  of  the  earth  in  our  headlong 
greed,  and  they  will  suffer  want.  We  are 
building  simless  houses  and  joyless  cities 
for  our  profit,  and  they  must  dwell  therein. 
We  are  making  the  burden  heavy  and  the 
pace  of  work  pitiless,  and  they  will  fall  wan 
and  sobbing  by  the  wayside.  We  are  poi- 
soning the  air  of  our  land  by  our  lies  and 
our  imcleanness,  and  they  will  breathe  it. 

O  God,  thou  knowest  how  we  have  cried 
out  in  agony  when  the  sins  of  our  fathers  have 
been  visited  upon  us,  and  how  we  have 
struggled  vainly  against  the  inexorable  fate 
that  coursed  in  our  blood  or  bound  us  in  a 
[loo] 


w 


prison-house  of  life.  Save  us  from  maiming 
the  innocent  ones  who  come  after  us  by  the 
added  cruelty  of  our  sins.  Help  us  to 
break  the  ancient  force  of  evil  by  a  holy  and 
steadfast  will  and  to  endow  our  children 
with  purer  blood  and  nobler  thoughts. 
Grant  us  grace  to  leave  the  earth  fairer 
than  we  found  it;  to  build  upon  it  cities  of 
God  in  which  the  cry  of  needless  pain  shall 
cease;  and  to  put  the  yoke  of  Christ  upon 
our  business  life  that  it  may  serve  and  not 
destroy.  Lift  the  veil  of  the  future  and  show 
us  the  generation  to  come  as  it  will  be  if 
blighted  by  our  guilt,  that  our  lust  may  be 
cooled  and  we  may  walk  in  the  fear  of  the 
Eternal.  Grant  us  a  vision  of  the  far-off 
years  as  they  may  be  if  redeemed  by  the 
sons  of  God,  that  we  may  take  heart  and  do 
battle  for  thy  children  and  ours. 


[iio] 


J 


ON  THE  HARM  WE  HAVE  DONE 

UR  Father,  we  look 
back  on  the  years  that 
are  gone  and  shame 
and  sorrow  come  upon 
us,  for  the  harm  we 
have  done  to  others 
rises  up  in  our  mem- 
ory to  accuse  us.  Some 
we  have  seared  with  the  fire  of  our  lust, 
and  some  we  have  scorched  by  the  heat  of 
our  anger.  In  some  we  helped  to  quench 
the  glow  of  yoimg  ideals  by  our  selfish  pride 
and  craft,  and  in  some  we  have  nipped  the 
opening  bloom  of  faith  by  the  frost  of  our 
unbelief. 

We  might  have  followed  thy  blessed 
footsteps,  O  Christ,  binding  up  the  bruised 
hearts  of  our  brothers  and  guiding  the  way- 
ward passions  of  the  yotmg  to  firmer  man- 
hood. Instead,  there  are  poor  hearts  now 
broken  and  darkened  because  they  encoun- 
tered us  on  the  way,  and  some  perhaps 
remember  us  only  as  the  beginning  of  their 
misery  or  sin. 

O  God,  we  know  that  all  our  prayers  can 
never  bring  back  the  past,  and  no  tears 
[III] 


can  wash  out  the  red  marks  with  which  we 
have  scarred  some  life  that  stands  before 
our  memory  with  accusing  eyes.  Grant 
that  at  least  a  humble  and  pure  life  may 
grow  out  of  our  late  contrition,  that  in  the 
brief  days  still  left  to  us  we  may  comfort 
and  heal  where  we  have  scorned  and  crushed. 
Change  us  by  the  power  of  thy  saving  grace 
from  sources  of  evil  into  forces  for  good, 
that  with  all  oiu:  strength  we  may  fight  the 
wrongs  we  have  aided,  and  aid  the  right  we 
have  clogged.  Grant  us  this  boon,  that  for 
every  harm  we  have  done,  we  may  do  some 
brave  act  of  salvation,  and  that  for  every 
soul  that  has  stumbled  or  fallen  through  us, 
we  may  bring  to  thee  some  other  weak  or 
despairing  one,  whose  strength  has  been 
renewed  by  our  love,  that  so  the  face  of  thy 
Christ  may  smile  upon  us  and  the  light  within 
us  may  shine  imdimmed. 


I  FOR  THE  PROPHETS  AND  PIONEERS 

E  praise  thee,  Almighty 
God,  for  thine  elect, 
the  prophets  and  mar- 
tyrs of  humanity,  who 
gave  their  thoughts  and 
prayers  and  agonies  for 
the  truth  of  God  and 
the  freedom  of  the  peo- 
ple. We  praise  thee  that  amid  loneliness 
1  and  the  contempt  of  men,  in  poverty  and 
I  imprisonment,  when  they  were  condemned 
I  by  the  laws  of  the  mighty  and  buffeted  on 
I  the  scaffold,  thou  didst  uphold  them  by  thy 
spirit  in  loyalty  to  thy  holy  cause. 

Our  hearts  bum  within  us  as  we  follow 
the  bleeding  feet  of  thy  Christ  down  the 
centuries,  and  count  the  mounts  of  anguish 
on  which  he  was  crucified  anew  in  his  prophets 
and  the  true  apostles  of  his  spirit.  Help 
us  to  forgive  those  who  did  it,  for  some  truly 
thought  they  were  serving  thee  when  they 
suppressed  thy  light,  but  oh,  save  us  from 
the  same  mistake!  Grant  us  an  unerring 
instinct  for  what  is  right  and  true,  and  a 
swift  sympathy  to  divine  those  who  truly 
love  and  serve  the  people.   Suffer  us  not 


by  thoughtless  condemnation  or  selfish  oppo- 
sition to  weaken  the  arm  and  chill  the  spirit 
of  those  who  strive  for  the  redemption  of 
mankind.  May  we  never  bring  upon  us 
the  blood  of  all  the  righteous  by  renewing 
the  spirit  of  those  who  persecuted  them  in  the 
past.  Grant  us  rather  that  we,  too,  may  be 
cotmted  in  the  chosen  band  of  those  who 
have  given  their  life  as  a  ransom  for  the 
many.  Send  us  forth  with  the  pathfinders 
of  humanity  to  lead  thy  people  another  day's 
march  toward  the  land  of  promise. 

And  if  we,  too,  must  suffer  loss,  and  drink 
of  the  bitter  pool  of  misunderstanding  and 
scorn,  uphold  us  by  thy  spirit  in  steadfastness 
and  joy  because  we  are  found  worthy  to 
share  in  the  work  and  the  reward  of  Jesus 
and  all  the  saints. 


FOR  THOSE  WITHOUT  KNOWLEDGE 
THOU  Eternal  One, 
we  adore  thee  who  in 
all  ages  hast  been  the 
great  companion  and 
teacher  of  mankind ;  for 
thou  hast  lifted  our 
race  from  the  depths, 
miS  and  hast  made  us  to 
share  in  thy  conscious  intelligence  and 
thy  will  that  makes  for  righteousness  and 
love.  Thou  alone  art  our  Redeemer,  for 
thy  lifting  arms  were  about  us  and  thy 
persistent  voice  was  in  our  hearts  as  we 
slowly  climbed  up  from  savage  darkness  and 
cruelty.  Thou  knowest  how  often  we  have 
resisted  thee  and  loved  the  easy  ways  of 
sin  rather  than  the  toilsome  gain  of  self- 
control  and  the  divine  irritation  of  thy  truth. 

O  God,  visit  not  upon  us  the  guilt  of  the 
past,  for  our  fathers  have  slain  thy  prophets. 
They  silenced  the  voices  that  spoke  thine 
onward  thought,  and  generations  have  per- 
ished in  soddenness  and  misery  because 
the  strong  once  quenched  the  light  of  truth. 
Do  thou  free  humanity  at  last  from  the 
blood-rusted  chains  with  which  the  past  still 
[115] 


binds  us.  Multiply  the  God-conquered  souls 
who  open  their  hearts  gladly  to  the  light 
that  makes  us  free,  for  all  creation  shall  be 
in  travail  till  these  sons  of  God  attain  their 
glory. 

We  pray  thee  for  those  who  amid  all  the 
knowledge  of  our  day  are  still  without  knowl- 
edge; for  those  who  hear  not  the  sighs  of 
the  children  that  toil,  nor  the  sobs  of  such 
as  are  wounded  because  others  have  made 
haste  to  be  rich;  for  those  who  have  never 
felt  the  hot  tears  of  the  mothers  of  the  poor 
that  struggle  vainly  against  poverty  and 
vice.  Arouse  them,  we  beseech  thee,  from 
their  selfish  comfort  and  grant  them  the  grace 
of  social  repentance.  Smite  us  all  with 
the  conviction  that  for  us  ignorance  is  sin, 
and  that  we  are  indeed  our  brother's  keeper 
if  our  own  hand  has  helped  to  lay  him  low. 
Though  increase  of  knowledge  bring  increase 
of  sorrow,  may  we  turn  without  flinching 
to  the  light  and  offer  ourselves  as  instruments 
of  thy  spirit  in  bringing  order  and  beauty 
out  of  disorder  and  darkness. 


[ii6] 


FOR  A  SHARE  IN  THE  WORK  OF 
REDEMPTION 

GOD,  thou  great  Re- 
«  deemer  of  mankind,  our 
I  hearts  are  tender  in 
the  thought  of  thee, 
for  in  all  the  afflic- 
tions of  our  race  thou 
I  hast  been  afflicted, 
J  and  in  the  sufferings 
of  thy  people  it  was  thy  body  that  was 
crucified.  Thou  hast  been  wounded  by 
our  transgressions  and  bruised  by  our 
iniquities,  and  all  our  sins  are  laid  at  last  on 
thee.  Amid  the  groaning  of  creation  we 
behold  thy  spirit  in  travail  till  the  sons  of 
God  shall  be  born  in  freedom  and  holiness. 

We  pray  thee,  O  Lord,  for  the  graces  of 
a  pure  and  holy  life  that  we  may  no  longer 
add  to  the  dark  weight  of  the  world's  sin 
that  is  laid  upon  thee,  but  nia,y  share  with 
thee  in  thy  redemptive  work.  As  we  have 
thirsted  with  evil  passions  to  the  destruction 
of  men,  do  thou  fill  us  now  with  hunger  and 
thirst  for  justice  that  we  may  bear  glad 
tidings  to  the  poor  and  set  at  liberty  all  who 
are  in  the  prison-house  of  want  and  sin. 
[117] 


m 


Lay  thy  spirit  upon  us  and  inspire  us  with  a 
passion  of  Christ-like  love  that  we  may  join 
our  lives  to  the  weak  and  oppressed  and 
may  strengthen  their  cause  by  bearing  their 
sorrows.  And  if  the  evil  that  is  threatened 
turns  to  smite  us  and  if  we  must  learn  the 
dark  malignity  of  sinful  power,  comfort 
us  by  the  thought  that  thus  we  are  bearing 
in  our  body  the  marks  of  Jesus,  and  that 
only  those  who  share  in  his  free  sacrifice 
shall  feel  the  plenitude  of  thy  life.  Help 
us  in  patience  to  carry  forward  the  eternal 
cross  of  thy  Christ,  counting  it  joy  if  we,  too, 
are  sown  as  grains  of  wheat  in  the  furrows 
of  the  world,  for  only  by  the  agony  of  the 
righteous  comes  redemption. 


ml 

m 


^^^^ 


CHURCH 

GOD,  we  pray  for  thy 
Church,,  which  is  set 
to-day  amid  the  per- 


plexities  of  a  changing 
order,  and  face  to  face 
with  a  great  new  task. 
We  remember  with  love 
the  nurture  she  gave 
to  our  spiritual  life  in  its  infancy,  the  tasks 
she  set  for  our  growing  strength,  the  influ- 
ence of  the  devoted  hearts  she  gathers,  the 
steadfast  power  for  good  she  has  exerted. 
When  we  compare  her  with  all  other  human 
institutions,  we  rejoice,  for  there  is  none 
like  her.  But  when  we  judge  her  by  the 
mind  of  her  Master,  we  bow  in  pity  and  con- 
trition. Oh,  baptize  her  afresh  in  the  life- 
giving  spirit  of  Jesus!  Grant  her  a  new 
birth,  though  it  be  with  the  travail  of  repent- 
ance and  humiliation.  Bestow  upon  her 
a  more  imperious  responsiveness  to  duty,  a 
swifter  compassion  with  suffering,  and  an 
utter  loyalty  to  the  will  of  God.  Put  upon 
her  lips  the  ancient  gospel  of  her  Lord.  Help 
her  to  proclaim  boldly  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  the  doom  of  all  that 
[HQ] 


i 


resist  it.  Fill  her  with  the  prophets'  scorn 
of  tyranny,  and  with  a  Christ-like  tenderness 
for  the  heavy-laden  and  down-trodden.  Give 
her  faith  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  people, 
and  in  their  hands  that  grope  after  freedom 
and  light  to  recognize  the  bleeding  hands 
of  the  Christ.  Bid  her  cease  from  seeking 
her  own  life,  lest  she  lose  it.  Make  her 
vaUant  to  give  up  her  life  to  humanity,  that 
like  her  crucified  Lord  she  may  motmt  by 
the  path  of  the  cross  to  a  higher  glory. 


[120] 


FOR  OUR  CITY 

GOD,  we  pray  thee 
for  this,  the  city  of 
our  love  and  pride. 
We  rejoice  in  her  spa- 
cious beauty  and  her 
busy  ways  of  commerce, 
in  her  stores  and  facto- 
ries where  hand  joins 
hand  in  toil,  and  in  her  blessed  homes  where 
heart  joins  heart  for  rest  and  love. 

Help  us  to  make  our  city  the  mighty 
common  workshop  of  our  people,  where 
every  one  will  find  his  place  and  task,  in 
daily  achievement  building  up  his  own  life 
to  resolute  manhood,  keen  to  do  his  best  with 
hand  and  mind.  Help  us  to  make  our  city 
the  greater  home  of  our  people,  where  all 
may  live  their  lives  in  comfort,  imafraid, 
loving  their  loves  in  peace  and  rounding  out 
their  years  in  strength. 

Bind  our  citizens,  not  by  the  bond  of  money 
and  of  profit  alone,  but  by  the  glow  of  neigh- 
borly good-will,  by  the  thrill  of  common 
joys,  and  the  pride  of  common  possessions. 
As  we  set  the  greater  aims  for  the  future 
of  our  city,  may  we  ever  remember  that 

[  121  ] 


her  true  wealth  and  greatness  consist,  not 
in  the  abundance  of  the  things  we  possess, 
but  in  the  justice  of  her  institutions  and  the 
brotherhood  of  her  children.  Make  her 
rich  in  her  sons  and  daughters  and  famous 
through  the  lofty  passions  that  inspire 
them. 

We  thank  thee  for  the  patriot  men  and 
women  of  the  past  whose  generous  devotion 
to  the  common  good  has  been  the  making  of 
our  city.  Grant  that  our  own  generation 
may  build  worthily  on  the  foundation  they 
have  laid.  If  in  the  past  there  have  been 
some  who  have  sold  the  city's  good  for  private 
gain,  staining  her  honor  by  their  cunning 
and  greed,  fill  us,  we  beseech  thee,  with  the 
righteous  anger  of  true  sons  that  we  may 
purge  out  the  shame  lest  it  taint  the  future 
years. 

Grant  us  a  vision  of  our  city,  fair  as  she 
might  be :  a  city  of  justice,  where  none  shall 
prey  on  others;  a  city  of  plenty,  where  vice 
and  poverty  shall  cease  to  fester;  a  city 
of  brotherhood,  where  all  success  shall  be 
founded  on  service,  and  honor  shall  be  given 
to  nobleness  alone;  a  city  of  peace,  where 
order  shall  not  rest  on  force,  but  on  the  love 
r  122  1 


FOR  THE  COOPERATIVE 
COMMONWEALTH 

GOD,  we  praise  thee 
for  the  dream  of  the 
golden  city  of  peace 
and  righteousness 
which  has  ever  haunted 
the  prophets  of  human- 
ity, and  we  rejoice  with 
joy  unspeakable  that  at 
last  the  people  have  conquered  the  freedom 
and  knowledge  and  power  which  may  avail 
to  turn  into  reality  the  vision  that  so  long  has 
beckoned  in  vain. 

Speed  now  the  day  when  the  plains  and 
the  hills  and  the  wealth  thereof  shall  be  the 
people's  own,  and  thy  freemen  shall  not 
live  as  tenants  of  men  on  the  earth  which 
thou  hast  given  to  all;  when  no  babe  shall  be 
bom  without  its  equal  birthright  in  the  riches 
and  knowledge  wrought  out  by  the  labor  of 
the  ages;  and  when  the  mighty  engines  of 
industry  shall  throb  with  a  gladder  music 
because  the  men  who  ply  these  great  tools 
shall  be  their  owners  and  masters. 

Bring  to  an  end,  O  Lord,  the  inhumanity 
of  the  present,  in  which  all  men  are  ridden 

[12 


mm 


mm 


by  the  pale  fear  of  want  while  the  nation  of 
which  they  are  citizens  sits  throned  amid  the 
wealth  of  their  making;  when  the  manhood 
in  some  is  cowed  by  helplessness,  while  the 
soul  of  others  is  surfeited  and  sick  with 
power  which  no  frail  son  of  the  dust  should 
wield. 

O  God,  save  us,  for  our  nation  is  at  strife 
with  its  own  soul  and  is  sinning  against  the 
light  which  thou  aforetime  hast  kindled  in  it. 
Thou  hast  called  our  people  to  freedom, 
but  we  are  withholding  from  men  their 
share  in  the  common  heritage  without  which 
freedom  becomes  a  hollow  name.  Thy 
Christ  has  kindled  in  us  the  passion  for 
brotherhood,  but  the  social  life  we  have 
built,  denies  and  slays  brotherhood. 

We  pray  thee  to  revive  in  us  the  hardy 
spirit  of  our  forefathers  that  we  may  establish 
and  complete  their  work,  building  on  the 
basis  of  their  democracy  the  firm  edifice  of  a 
cooperative  commonwealth,  in  which  both 
government  and  industry  shall  be  of  the 
people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people. 
May  we,  who  now  live,  see  the  oncoming  of 
the  great  day  of  God,  when  all  men  shall 
stand  side  by  side  in  equal  worth  and  real 
[125] 


freedom,  all  toiling  and  all  reaping,  masters 
f  of  nature  but  brothers  of  men,  exultant  in 
i  the  tide  of  the  common  life,  and  jubilant  in 
i  the  adoration  of  Thee,  the  source  of  their 

blessings  and  the  Father  of  all. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PRAYER 

O  Thou  who  art  the  light  of  my  soul,  I  thank  Thee  for 
the  incomparable  joy  of  listening  to  thy  voice  within, 
and  I  know  that  no  word  of  thine  shall  return  void, 
however  brokenly  uttered.  If  aught  in  this  book  was 
said  through  lack  of  knowledge,  or  through  weakness 
of  faith  in  Thee  or  of  love  for  men,  I  pray  Thee  to  over- 
rule my  sin  and  turn  aside  its  force  before  it  harm  thy 
cause.  Pardon  the  frailty  of  thy  servant,  and  look 
upon  him  only  as  he  sinks  his  life  in  Jesus,  his  Master 
and  Saviour.  Amen. 


[126] 


